Gatebreaker: Book One

by Michelle Wilson

  “I guess we’d like to go,” I said. Aidric nodded his agreement. I was restless and couldn’t hang around the campsite doing nothing anymore. “Do we have time before your friends show up?” I asked Aidric.

  “Oh yes, they probably won’t be here for another couple of hours or so,” he said.

  “I’ll stay here with John while we wait on Aidric’s companions to show up,” Murphy said. “Don’t go too far.”

  We nodded to him and Erin started off in a direction in the forest we hadn’t taken before. We decided we wanted to see how far the forest went up the mountain to see if we could get more of a feel for this place. We continued around the side of the mountain until it became clear the trees were not going to break anytime soon.

  “How about I climb one of these trees and see what I can find from the top?” I asked.

  “Okay, fine. But be careful and don’t fall,” Erin told me.

  I rolled my eyes but nodded my head. I was an amazing climber and I had excellent balance. I wasn’t going to fall. I walked to one of the sturdiest looking trees and placed my hands on the trunk for a moment. The bark felt rough against my hands and for a moment it felt like I was part of the tree. I could imagine what it felt like to stretch my branches to the sky and have the leaves tickle my limbs. I pulled my hand back from the trunk with a shock. When I broke contact with the tree, the feeling vanished. Once again I felt that sense of hollowness I was becoming all too familiar with. What was going on? Things were getting stranger and stranger and I was going to have to find some answers soon. I made a mental note to ask the others if they were having the same feelings when we were away from Aidric and turned back to focus on the tree.

  I pulled my tall leather boots off and sat them beside the tree. I could climb much better without shoes and I didn’t want the rough leather to damage any of the branches of the tree. Reaching straight above my head I wrapped my arm around the branch there and used my feet against the trunk to push myself on top of it. Standing up, I was able to reach the next branch easily. As I got higher the branches got closer and I was able to climb them like an oddly shaped ladder. The branches stayed think and stable for a long time. I was impressed with the strength and the health of the tree. Eventually, I made it to the top and was able to stick my head through the crown of golden leaves.

  Once my head broke through the canopy, I inhaled and exhaled deeply, letting go of the exertion it had taken me to get up here. I was a bit surprised to find that I wasn’t overly tired. I took a glance at the ground and realized I was very far up. I should’ve been more tired after climbing a tree that tall. While I pondered that thought, I turned slowly so I could get a full bird’s-eye view of the area we were in.

  All I saw was the canopy of magnificent golden leaves. It was breathtaking. To my right I could see more and more trees climbing up the mountain. As far I could see in that direction there was no break in the trees. I couldn’t believe the forest was that big. The shriek of a bird made me spin around. I watched as a large eagle climbed higher in the sky and began to soar above my head. I guessed I had startled it.

  “Sorry,” I called even though I knew it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. To my left I could see the forest stretch for a few miles before it ended abruptly. A large river ran beside the trees and beside the river was a wide dirt road. In a large field beyond the road I could see two or three smoke plumes rising up to the sky. I was also pleasantly surprised to see the grass in the field was the normal green I was used to seeing. I took another deep breath to take it all in. I tried to sear the sight of the beautiful golden canopy in my brain before starting to climb back down.

  I landed back on the soft grass with the thump. My ankle gave out and I started to stumble but Aidric caught me by the elbow.

  “Thanks,” I told him. “My ankle is just a little weak, I think I twisted it earlier.” I was lying, my ankle was steadily throbbing now after my treecapades but I wasn’t about to tell anyone about it. I was operating on the ‘ignore it and it will go away’ philosophy.

  “Maybe you should sit down,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Erin agreed. “We don’t want you hurting it worse.”

  “No, no,” I said. “I’m fine, just came down on it funny coming out of the tree.” I sat down on the ground and pulled my boots back on and laced them up. The pressure of the leather against my ankle helped ease the aching some. They both shook their heads at me but didn’t say anything else.

  “I think I can hear the stream behind us,” Aidric said. “How about we find it and follow it back to the campsite?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Erin told him. “Maybe we will see some wildlife near the water.”

  13

  I followed Erin and Aidric through the forest towards the stream. After walking for a few minutes, I could hear the sound of the gurgling water ahead. We hurried forward and were greeted by the sight of the stream. We came upon it at a fork as two branches of it began to flow together. Now that we were higher on the mountain, the stream was much narrower and rocky. The water flowed faster as it went downhill from there. Even there, the water was crystal clear, and I could see the rocks that made up the bed of the stream.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen water so clear,” Erin said.

  “What was that?” Aidric asked.

  Erin caught herself and said, “I was just saying nice to find the water again, I was getting thirsty and left my water back at the campsite.”

  “New traveler’s mistake,” Aidric said. He pulled his own water skin from his belt and filled it up.

  “Here,” he said, offering it to Erin. “You can use my water skin, much easier than trying to use your hands.”

  “Oh, thanks!” she said smiling brightly at him.

  Erin could charm a stone wall if given long enough. I was sure that talent would probably come in handy soon, but right now I found it a bit annoying. After Erin finished drinking, Aidric offered his water to me. I nodded my thanks and took a drink.

  Erin sat down next to the stream and took her boots off and stuck her feet in the water.

  “Oh, that’s nice,” she said. “Let’s rest here for a moment, my feet are killing me.”

  Aidric watched her for a moment and then said, “I think I’ll join you. That kind of looks like fun.”

  “What, you never stick your feet in the water?” Erin asked.

  “I haven’t in a long time. I’m rarely out in the wild this long and when I am it’s usually not for pleasure.”

  “Well come on then,” Erin said. She patted the ground next to her. “You might as well enjoy it while you’re here.”

  “Excellent point.” Aidric pulled his boots off as well and plunged his feet into the water. He shivered a little. “Colder than I was expecting,” he said. He turned around and looked at me where I was standing and watching them.

  “Lydia, would you like to join us?” he asked. He offered his hand up to help me sit down. I smiled at his offer but shook my head.

  “Oh, um, thanks, but I’m okay,” I stumbled through my words, I was tongue tied all of a sudden. “I think I’m going to walk up the stream a little more and see what I can find.”

  “Have fun,” he told me.

  “Let’s head back in a few minutes, Lydia,” Erin added. “We don’t want to keep the boys waiting for long.”

  I nodded my head at them and started up the mountain walking alongside the stream.

  The stream curved sharply to the right just above where Erin and Aidric were so it wasn’t long before they were both out of sight. I walked until I could no longer hear them chatting. I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going but something about this place had me feeling like my whole body was tingling and full of energy. Sitting and doing nothing was beyond my abilities at the moment.

  This part of the stream was the same as the other part of the stream. It was a bit surreal to be in a different world but for the most part everything seemed the same. Besides the color of the leav
es and grass it could be any forest back home. I continued to walk along the bank. I kicked rocks as I walked along. I could hear birds chirping and squirrels chattering up in the branches of the trees. I was picking my way up a steep incline when I noticed that all the noise from the branches had stopped. I looked up and there at the top of the hill looking down at me was a large sable wolf.

  The wolf was larger than any I had seen before. It had its ears pricked and was staring directly at me with large brown eyes. I froze. I was leaning forward with my hand on a branch to balance myself as I hiked up the incline. There was no way I could get away if this wolf decided to attack. In the back of my mind I knew that wolves didn’t attack humans. But here I was in the forest staring down a wolf the size of a small horse. Maybe the wolves of this world weren’t as skittish as the ones back home. Maybe the wolves here attacked humans who trespassed on their territories. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. Not the smartest thing to do in the face of danger but I needed to calm myself down and I kind of hoped that when I opened them the wolf would be gone, and I would realize it had just been my imagination.

  Nope. The wolf was still staring at me. We continued to stare at each other for another moment and then the strangest thing happened. The wolf beckoned to me. But that couldn’t be right, could it? There was no other way to describe it. The wolf watched me for a moment and then did it again. It tossed its head in the direction of the top of the rise.

  “You want me to come up?” I asked. The strangeness of asking a wolf a question was not lost on me. The wolf nodded its head, turned, and walked away. After it was out of sight, I had the urge to turn and run all the way down the incline and back to Aidric and Erin. At least Aidric had a sword if I could get back to them. But I knew with the current state of my ankle, I wouldn’t have a chance to get anywhere if the wolf decided to chase me. I shrugged my shoulders and continued up the rise. To my surprise, it wasn’t the wolf that awaited me at the top.

  14

  The strange woman was back. She stood leaning against a tree where the incline flattened out. As soon as I made it to the same level as her, she marched forward and grabbed me by the front of my shirt.

  “What do you all think you’re doing going off like that? Do you know who you’re with?” Her face was close to mine and I could see how angry she was. I tried to look away from her eyes. Then I realized they were strangely familiar brown eyes.

  “Where’s the wolf?” I asked.

  “Answer me!” she demanded.

  “His name is Aidric,” I told her begrudgingly. I didn’t appreciate her tone. “I rescued him from a hole he had fallen in and now he’s insisting we go back to the capital city with him. He told us he’d help us find work. We are just waiting around for his companions to show up, whoever they are. Now answer me. There was just a wolf up here and now there’s not.”

  The woman let go of me and paced around the clearing for a bit. She was clearly agitated. She also looked a bit foreboding with her cloak swirling around her as she paced.

  “Yes, I’m a shapeshifter. But that’s not what’s important. You need to listen to me carefully.” She stopped pacing and turned back toward me. I took a step back, afraid she was going to grab me again, but she didn’t. She came close to me and stared at me.

  “You are a Magic Wielder,” she said.

  I said nothing for a moment, just stared gaping at her. What was she talking about?

  “No,” I protested. “We already told you, there’s not magic where we come from. It’s not possible.”

  “I learned a long time ago not to question what is or isn’t possible. You’re a Magic Wielder. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how, but you are the one who brought you and your friends here from your world.”

  “How? How could I do that if I didn’t know?” Nothing this strange woman was saying made sense.

  “Sometimes the magic is pulled out of us and we have little control. It would have taken a lot of power for you to travel between worlds like that. That’s why you passed out. You are lucky you didn’t die. Since you arrived here how have you felt?”

  “Overwhelmed for one. Weird. Energized somehow. I’m sure it’s just adrenaline,” I trailed off, starting to think about some of the things that had happened over the last day since we had arrived.

  “Strange things have been happening, haven’t they? That first night, I knew you were a Magic Wielder. You read my emotions. It’s one of the first things Wielders learn to do. Everyone possesses empathy naturally to a certain extent so once their magic begins to work, it’s easy to take on other people’s emotion without meaning to.”

  “I don’t understand. How can I be a Magic Wielder?”

  “I don’t know. And I don’t know what affinity you are either, to travel between worlds like that. I will tell you this, you are going to be in the company of people who cannot find out what happened. Do not mention the gate. Do no mention your home. Mention absolutely nothing about your past lives or the fact you just arrived in Adylra.”

  “Why, though? Why can’t we just tell them the truth? Maybe Aidric or someone else we meet will know how to get us back home.”

  “They will not. There is no way for you to go home. Life will be much worse for you if you tell the truth. The king of Thavell tolerates the Magic Wielders but only to an extent. He does not tolerate those with too much power and he most certainly does not tolerate phenomena he cannot understand. If he finds out, you will be killed. The rest of the country follows his lead. Magic Wielders are no longer mistreated but they are still not overly tolerated. Especially when it is someone who Wields an unknown power.”

  “What then?” I asked. “What do I do?”

  “You learn to control your power. You keep it to yourself. You learn the customs and what life is like in Adylra and Thavell.”

  “How can I control my power if I don’t even know what it is? How can I learn if I can’t tell anyone?” I could feel myself getting equal parts angry and terrified. But even as I protested, deep within myself I could almost feel a pool energy unfurl a little. This is what I had felt before. I felt it that first night, and again when I pulled Aidric out of the hole. I focused on the feeling for a moment. It felt foreign but somehow like something I had been missing all along. I could sense it within me. It was like a golden ball deep within my core. The woman had been watching me as I began to discover it.

  “You can feel it now, can’t you? That pool of energy within you, that’s what you have to learn to control. It will be harder with no one to teach you, but maybe in the capital city you will have the opportunity to listen and learn. Control your mind and you can control your magic. This is where I leave you. Aidric’s companions will be arriving soon.”

  “Wait, that’s it? You’re not going with us? You’re not going to help us?” The sound of panic in my own voice surprised me as I stood and stared at the woman. She wouldn’t even tell me her name, but she was the only person who might have answers about what was happening to me in this strange place.

  “I have helped you. I cannot go to the castle. I have told you what to do. Everything will be fine if you listen to me. Don’t draw attention to yourselves and you will do well.” She stopped talking and looked into the trees for a moment.

  “I must go,” she said. She took a couple of steps away from me but then paused and turned back around. Slowly she said, “I know all of this must be a shock for you. I am sorry. Good luck.” Without waiting for a reply she walked off, changing from woman into wolf and disappeared into the trees.

  15

  I stood alone for a moment after the wolf disappeared. You are a Magic Wielder. Her words echoed over and over in my head. You are the one who brought you and your friends here from your world. It just couldn’t be possible. How could I bring us here without knowing that’s what I did? But even as I refused to believe what the woman had told me, I couldn’t help but admit her explanation made sense. I dreamed about the gateway before I found it. The strange
things that had been happening since we had arrived in Adylra. Did I cause the earthquake in the cave in the first place?

  “I am a Magic Wielder,” I said the words out loud. Nothing happened. I wasn’t sure what I expected. My proclamation was a little anticlimactic. I shook my head and turned to head back down the hillside.

  I tried to hurry but my ankle was hurting more and more. I wished the ache would go away, the pain was starting to become distracting. Erin and Aidric were still talking away sitting on the banks of the stream. I found myself a bit annoyed they were having such a good time. Erin was able to fit in no matter where she was. Her ability had always made me a little jealous.

  “We should probably head back soon. Didn’t you say your companions would be along shortly?” I said once I was within earshot.

  “You are right, Lydia. We should probably get back to the campsite with Murphy and John. Did you find anything interesting?” Aidric stood and turned to face me. Every time he turned those brown eyes on me and spoke, I suddenly became self-conscious. When he was looking at me it felt like I was the only other person in the world.

  “Um, not really,” I told him. “I was kind of hoping to see the unicorn again but all I saw were some squirrels and birds. This forest really is beautiful.”

  “Yes, it is,” he said. “You know it’s one of the most undisturbed places in Adylra. Even though entrance into the forest hasn’t been forbidden for a generation now, most people still avoid it. It does mean you can find some unsavory characters hiding out in here if you’re not careful.”

  “So, what are you doing out here all alone?” I asked him.

  “I just felt like splitting off from my group and taking a couple of days to myself to see what I could find here. I like to go exploring when I can.” Both he and Erin had their boots on now and we began to walk back toward the campsite.