Gatebreaker: Book One

by Michelle Wilson

  “Um, to find work.” Yeah, that sounded convincing.

  “Why do you need to find work, where are your families?”

  “We’re orphans.” I grimaced a little as I said it. Saying we were orphans felt a bit raw when I knew our families would be looking for us back home and would have no way of knowing where we had disappeared to. “You know you’re stuck in a hole, right?" I asked him, tired of the questions. “Would you like out of there?”

  The guy smiled and relaxed a little. He removed his hand from his sword and said. “That would be great, thank you.”

  “Do you have any ideas?” I asked him.

  “If you go west about fifty paces, you should find the clearing where I set up camp last night. I’ve got some rope in my pack.”

  “Great, hang tight, I’ll be right back.”

  “I don’t think I’m going anywhere,” he said and grinned for the first time. I grinned back and headed toward his pack. It was good know they still used east and west here. Maybe fitting in wouldn’t be too difficult after all. I found his campsite just where he said it would be. It wasn’t much of a campsite, though. Just some charred grass from what I guessed had been a fire and the pack lying by itself under a bush. I fished it out and grabbed the rope before heading back to the hole. I tied a knot one end and dropped it down into the hole. The guy was just able to grab it.

  “Is there a tree close enough for you to tie the rest around so I can climb out?”

  I stretched the rope as far as it would go and managed to get it around a tree. I put my foot against the tree and tugged the knot at tight as I could before sticking my head back over the rim of the hole.

  “Okay,” I called. “Climb out.”

  The guy gripped the rope with both hands and found a purchase on the side of the hole with his foot. With a grunt he heaved himself up and made his way hand over hand and foot over foot up the side. I was impressed. It took a lot of strength. I saw tension on the rope and heard a few grunts as the guy pulled himself out of the hole. He was close to being able to grab the edge when I noticed the rope fraying against a rock where it went over the side. I watched as the rope swayed and the rock cut through the rest of it like a knife. Before I could think about what I was doing, I threw myself face down on the ground and reached into the hole.

  His hand grabbed my arm and I was able reach down and grab him just above his elbow with both hands. He still had his feet against the earthen wall of the hole and with his other hand held a strong root that was sticking out of the soil. The rope had fallen uselessly to the bottom of the hole. His face was very close to mine and at this angle and I could see he had the shadow of a beard growing round his chin and his eyes were a dark brown with little flecks of gold in them. We both stared at one another. When our eyes met, I felt something like a jolt of lightning course through me. I could feel my heart racing but something about it felt foreign. Emotions flooded my consciousness. Excitement, strain, a little bit of apprehension, and at the end even some attraction. The emotions whipped through me one by one in quick succession. I couldn’t make sense of it all. I cried out, closed my eyes, and dropped my forehead to the ground. As soon as I broke eye contact with the man the parade of emotions stopped, and I was left feeling hollow for a moment before my own adrenaline and apprehension replaced the emptiness.

  “Are you all right?” he asked me.

  “Yeah, I am,” I said. I looked back up at him, but I was careful to not make direct eye contact again. I didn’t know what had happened and I didn’t have time to think about it right now.

  “Good. Because if you’re not, I’m in big trouble,” he said and smiled. I had to admire a man who was literally hanging off a ledge and could still smile.

  “So, what are we supposed to do now?” I asked.

  “That’s an excellent question,” he said. His voice was strained. I couldn’t imagine the amount of strength it was taking to hang on like he was. I was flat on my stomach on the ground. I lifted my head up as high as it would go to try to see if there was anything I could grab onto or any leverage I could use to hoist him up. There was nothing.

  “You know,” I said. “If we both yell loud enough my friends might hear us and come help.”

  “No,” he said sternly. “Don’t yell, you never know who or what might hear you in the forest.”

  “Okay then,” I said. I chose to ignore the strangeness of that advice. “Well, if I can get my knees under me,” I continued, “I think I can pull and if you can jump at the same time, I think we can get you over the side.” He nodded.

  I carefully wiggled my body so I was up on my knees some. I tried my best to keep my upper body still so I wouldn’t disturb his precarious hold. I got to a place where I knew I could pull up without landing myself in the hole as well before turning my gaze back to him.

  “Okay, on three. One. Two.” I took one more deep breath. “Three!”

  I gripped as hard as I could with both hands and pulled back onto my knees with all my might. I felt the guy move as he launched himself as hard as he could still pressed up against the side of the hole. I felt extra energy unfurl inside of me and rush into my arms. With another big hoist, he was up over the side and falling toward me. His body rammed into mine and we both fell back hard against the solid ground.

  11

  I felt the breath rush out of my lungs. I could only focus on trying to catch my breath. I could feel my eyes watering where his head had come up and busted my chin and one of my ankles was starting to throb. I could also feel that hollowness again inside me. It left me feeling tired and somehow lonely.

  Then, I realized the man I had just rescued was lying right on top of me. I could feel my whole body heat up as I came to this realization. I couldn’t see his face so I didn’t know what he was thinking. After a moment he stirred. All of a sudden, he pushed himself up on his hands and looked down at me.

  “Oh no. I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” he said in a rush. His eyes were concerned as he looked down at me.

  Now that I could move my arms, I rubbed the spot on my chin that was hurting. I looked at my fingers and saw it was bleeding. I looked up into his eyes and, in my addled state, suddenly had the strongest urge to reach up and caress the side of his face. My hand twitched in his direction, but I shook myself and broke the trance just in time.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Really. I just had the breath knocked out of me,” I assured him.

  He rolled off me. Very nimble for a guy who just climbed out of a ten foot hole in the ground and almost got himself knocked out. He rolled all the way to his feet and reached out his hand to help me up. I took it gratefully and he easily pulled me to my feet.

  On the same level as hm I could see he was more than a head taller than my 5’9’’ and only a few years older than me. Even under the mud and dirt I could tell his clothes were made well. He wore a vest over his shirt with some sort of design stitched into it and he had a pin on his shirt that was circular. It was gray with a thick black border and had a drawing of the head of a black wolf.

  “Look at me,” he said. He held his arms out and looked up and down at himself. He tucked a stone that was on a leather thong around his neck under his shirt and tried to smooth a couple of the wrinkles in his outfit. “Not a very dignified picture, am I?”

  “Well, you did spend the night in a hole full of dirt,” I pointed out.

  He laughed and nodded. “Yeah, you are right about that. Should’ve known better than to wander way from my camp without something to light the way. I’m, well,” he paused to clear his throat. “I’m Aidric.”

  “Oh, hang on,” I told him. I walked over to where I had dropped the water skins when I discovered him and brought him back one. “Here, you must be thirsty.”

  “Thank you,” he said as he took the water and lifted it to his lips. When he was done, he handed it back to me.

  “I’m Lydia,” I told him.

  “Lydia,” he repeated.

  He opened his mouth
to say something else but just then we heard something crashing through the woods. Aidric grabbed my arm and pushed me behind him and drew a long sword out of its sheath in one fluid motion. He placed himself between me and the oncoming noise with his sword held in front of him.

  “Lydia!” I heard a voice say. John, Erin, and Murphy burst through the trees in front of us. Murphy was out in front but stopped short when he saw the strange picture in front of him.

  “Be careful,” I called standing on tip toe to peek over Aidric’s shoulder. “There is a big hole over there someone dug.” I touched Aidric on the shoulder. “It’s okay. These are my friends I was telling you about.”

  Aidric inclined his head at my friends and sheathed his sword in another fluid motion. He stepped out of my way so I could walk to them. Erin walked forward with a piece of cloth and handed it to me.

  “Your chin is bleeding,” she whispered.

  I thanked her and pressed the cloth to the scrape on my chin.

  “Lydia, where have you been? We woke up, and you were gone,” Murphy said.

  “Sorry, guys. I just went to refill our water, and I met Aidric here.”

  “You’re being too kind,” Aidric said. He looked to my friends. “As much as I’m embarrassed to admit this in front of anyone, I fell into that hole last night and Lydia here came along and rescued me.” He smiled at me and I felt a weird fluttering in my chest. I blushed and looked away from him.

  “Well, we are glad you’re okay,” Erin said. “You worried us when we couldn’t find you. We need to stick together.”

  “I’m sorry,” I told them, and I meant it. “I didn’t mean to worry you guys. I had just planned to be gone a couple of minutes.”

  “Lydia tells me you guys are traveling from your village and looking for work?” Aidric asked, looking at the four of us.

  “Uh—er—yeah,” Murphy said. “We aren’t sure where we are heading yet but just, you know, needed a change of scenery.”

  “You all are welcome to travel with me and my companions once they find me,” he said. “We are headed for the capital city and there’s plenty of work there for people.”

  “Wow. Thank you,” I told him. I shared a glance with Erin before saying, “That’s nice of you. It’s a big offer, though, so we will think about it and let you know.” I could tell Erin was thinking the same thing I was. What about the woman who was supposed to return?

  “Well, think about it and let me know. For now, you will travel with my companions and I until you decide to part ways or to travel on to the capital with us. On that, I insist.” His words were soft and kind, yet I couldn’t help but think that last part wasn’t a request from the tone of his voice.

  “Of course,” John told him. Aidric smiled at us in response and once again I felt that strange fluttering in my belly.

  “Alright, it’s settled. Do you all have supplies? Let’s go get them and then we can meet up with my companions.”

  After we went with Aidric to pick up his pack, he followed us to our campsite. No one said much. It felt like there was a palpable tension in the air. Murphy kept giving Aidric sidelong glances and John and Erin hung back from the rest of us and kept talking in whispered voices. Aidric didn’t seem to think much of it, though. He didn’t say much, but he seemed perfectly at ease walking between Murphy and me through the forest. He stared at everything as we went past and even stopped a couple of times to watch birds in the trees or to poke at some sort of plant on the ground.

  “You know,” he said after he had stopped to pick a couple of leaves off a tree and put them in his pocket, “This is the first time I’ve been to this side of the Golden Forest, myself. It is exceptionally fascinating, isn’t it?”

  Inwardly I breathed a sigh of relief. If this place wasn’t common, maybe this world wouldn’t be as strange as we originally thought. I glanced at Murphy and he just raised his eyebrows at me.

  “Yes, it is,” I told him. “We saw a unicorn yesterday.”

  Aidric stopped in his tracks and gaped at me. “Seriously?” he asked.

  Feeling like I made a terrible mistake and had just outed us as imposters, I lowered my eyes and said, “Yeah. Just for a moment, though.”

  Aidric stared at me in amazement. His eyes were positively twinkling. “Do you all know how amazing that is?”

  “Actually, no,” I told him honestly. I heard Murphy suck in his breath a little behind us.

  “Unicorns are very rare. Only a generation ago they were thought to be extinct. They used to roam all over Adylra but when magic was lost, all the creatures whose very essence is magic disappeared too. Now that magic has returned to our lands, the magical creatures are starting to come back as well. We call the unicorn who lives in this forest the Golden Lady. They say she only shows herself to those who are most worthy and bestows her peace upon them.”

  “What makes someone ‘most worthy?’” John asked.

  “That is the question,” Aidric said. “We’ve had people travel to the Golden Forest from the Scholars at the castle to try to meet her, but she has never appeared. I was starting to think she was just a myth but if you’ve seen her, that’s great news. Maybe she will show herself again.” He looked around eagerly as if expecting the unicorn to come out immediately.

  After we returned to our camp Aidric suggested we rest for a bit.

  “My companions will be with us shortly,” he said.

  “How will they know where to find you?” John asked.

  Aidric extended an arm and showed us a bracelet he had around his wrist. It was made of silver links, in the middle the bracelet held what looked like a gem stone but it wasn’t one like I had ever seen before. It was a dark blue with silver running through it.

  “They can track me with this,” he said. “And they will, they don’t like me to get away for long.”

  John nodded and we all settled down for a few minutes to eat some of the food we had left and to wait.

  12

  After we had eaten Aidric stood up and stretched.

  “Lydia, if you don’t mind my asking, where did you see the unicorn?” The sound of my name sounded so pleasant in the tone of his voice.

  I shook that thought away as quickly as it came and said, “It was close to here. It was close to where we ar—uh— camped last night. Near the cliff facing.”

  “Which direction is that?”

  That was hard to say since I had been passed out. Somehow that didn’t seem like information I needed to be revealing, though. Thankfully, Erin stepped in and came to my aid.

  “It’s a little to the east. If you walk that way,” she said, pointing in the direction to our left. “You’ll run right into it. It’s not far from here.”

  “Lydia, would you like to go with me?” he asked.

  I smiled and stood up, but Erin grabbed my hand. “Oh, come on Lydia why don’t you and I stay here for a little bit. You know I don’t like to be in the forest alone.” She gave me a wide-eyed stare and hung onto my hand until I reluctantly sat down.

  “Maybe Erin’s right, maybe I should stay here.” I smiled apologetically at Aidric.

  “Come on, Aidric, I’ll show you where we saw the unicorn pass through the forest,” John said. He stood up and the two walked through the dense trees until they were out of sight.

  “What was that?” I asked, turning toward Erin.

  “You just met the guy and you’re going to go traipsing through the forest with him, alone?” she asked me.

  “I figured someone else would go with us, silly. It’s better than just sitting here and doing nothing.” I didn’t tell her that sitting and doing nothing was making me crazy. Something about this place and this forest gave me crazy energy. It almost felt like my whole body was on fire from the inside. If I sat still too long, I was afraid I might explode.

  “Erin, forget it,” Murphy said sternly, “What we really need to talk about is what we are going to do once that woman gets back. She sounded like she already knew where
she wanted us to go and I somehow doubt the capital city was what she had in mind.”

  I looked at him, surprised. There was something hard in his voice and he looked upset. I brushed the thought aside. There was a lot for us to be upset about at the moment.

  “Do we know if that woman is really going to come back?” I asked. “She was supposed to be back by now and there’s no sign of her. Besides, do we really want to go with her? She’s probably just as likely to take us all further into the forest and kill us as she is to help us.”

  “Lydia does have a point, Murphy.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Murphy conceded. He stood up and walked around the fire pit, rubbing the back of his neck. “John said as much as well. I guess we don’t really have an option except to go with this guy and his ‘companions’ and hope for the best?”

  “I think so,” I said. “Besides, I know I just met Aidric, but I do have a good feeling about him. He seems like he really wants to help us out.”

  “I don’t think we should be trusting anyone here,” Murphy said with a huff. I pulled back a bit at his tone and turned to Erin who just shrugged her shoulders. Before I could ask him what was wrong, John and Aidric emerged from the forest.

  “Nothing,” Aidric said. “Not even a hoof print where the Lady walked through. Amazing.” He looked like a kid in the candy store. John looked equally impressed.

  “I know we were in the right spot,” John said. “I remember exactly which tree the unicorn walked by, but Aidric is right, there wasn’t anything there. Except,” he paused and looked at Erin a little sheepishly. “When I stood in the path where I was sure the unicorn had passed through it was like I felt peaceful all over again.”

  “I remember that feeling,” I told him. “It was really nice, wasn’t it?”

  “It was,” he agreed.

  “Okay, I want to go exploring now,” Erin said as she stood up and dusted the dirt and leaves off the back of her pants. “Who wants to join me?” Aidric and I both stepped towards her.