Gateway to Fourline (The Fourline Trilogy Book 1)

by Pam Brondos

  “You’d be dead before you reached Daub Town, not that it would be much of a loss in your case.” Annin’s voice was vicious.

  Andris opened his mouth to speak.

  “Let her finish,” Estos said, again holding up his hand.

  “Two days after I passed through, I knew someone was following me. At first I suspected it was the Nala, but then I had a run-in with one of Mudug’s men when I was traveling north looking for any fringe Sisters.” She paused and glanced at Barba. “He ambushed me, but he was alone and easy enough to take down.”

  Andris scoffed.

  “You forget what happens when I’m in Fourline. I don’t need her potions to keep me strong.” She gestured to Ethet.

  “Annin, what happened after the attack?” Barba asked.

  “I did a dream-speak and learned he was tracking me, receiving messages about my movements. He was under orders to kill me, to kill all of us.”

  Silence settled over the room.

  Barba and Ethet exchanged glances. “Did you see any signs of the Sisters, Annin? Any healers?” Ethet asked.

  “No,” Annin replied softly. “Perhaps they are afraid to openly help but are healing in other ways.”

  “We must touch to heal.” Ethet sighed, finished her last suture, and cut the thread. “No, they are either dead or so frightened that they refuse to use what they know. Healing House was never known for its courage or strength like the Warrior House. I’m afraid the Sisters and their knowledge have faded over the years we’ve been here.”

  “Did you find the rebels?” Oberfisk asked, turning the topic away from Ethet’s sad musings.

  “Just a ragged band of sixteen men living north of the mines. I dream-spoke one of them from a distance.” Annin smiled broadly.

  “Really? How far away?” Estos asked, leaning in to listen to his friend.

  “Far enough not to spook their horses. The band was planning an attack on a small section of a mine in a few days’ time. Mudug was mining something odd—not copper, something else. The men were trying to stop the mine’s operations. I couldn’t confirm if the men were with Andris’ brother Gennes, but I sensed they were. The one I dream-spoke was well trained, and it took all I could do to get him to open up about their plans. I left him with the impression you were well, Estos.”

  “That should take care of it,” Andris scoffed. “I’m sure my brother will find great comfort in a grunt telling him he knows that King Estos is alive because some duozi told him in a dream-speak.”

  Annin gripped the edge of the table.

  “Andris, no more interruptions,” Estos said in a calm but commanding tone. He gestured for Annin to continue.

  “I moved south, trying to outpace whatever was tracking me,” Annin said. “But Mudug’s men caught up with me between Rustbrook and Daub Town. Barba, do you remember where we saw the meeting between Mudug’s emissary and the Nala?”

  “It’s a night not to forget, Annin.”

  “I fell asleep on the hill above that farmer’s house and woke early. A pack of Nala and Mudug’s men were riding past the farm. I could barely make out the riders, but I sensed at least five Nala. I took off toward the Meldon Plain and stopped after a few miles near the edge of it to keep watch, then I made my way back to the portal by following the last section of the path. That’s when I found Riler and two of Mudug’s men.”

  Riler turned his head to the right. Bits of dried leaf still clung to his beard. He took up the story.

  “I stayed in the portal for a bit and came out right as the sun was coming up.” Ethet taped a gauze pad over his wound. Riler winced. “I could hear the birds and figured that was as good a sign as any that none of the Nala were around. I never saw any Nala, but I got ambushed about halfway to the Hermit’s house by two of Mudug’s guards.”

  “You let two of them take you down?” Oberfisk’s face soured.

  “I’m not proud of it, Oberfisk,” Riler replied sharply. “But I did break one guard’s arm and left a nasty gash on the other’s face. I thought at first they meant to do me in right there, but they argued with one another about bringing me back to the capital. They even knew my name. One kept referring to me as ‘the traitor Riler’ while he trussed my arms.”

  Ethet gently pushed Riler back down on the cot. “Settle down, Riler, you’ll undo all my work,” she said.

  Riler let out a slow breath. “I heard Annin’s birdcall when they were leading me to the edge of the forest. So I pretended to trip, and she fell out of the tree and knocked out one of them. I managed a good kick to the one with a broken arm, and he went down like a sack of bricks. Passed out cold.” Riler smiled.

  “We pulled them off the path.” Annin resumed the story. “I dream-spoke the one with a broken arm. He knew each and every one of us. But they knew Riler and I were near the Meldon Plain.”

  “How is that possible?” Andris asked. Estos shook his head and let the interruption pass.

  “It was the same with Mudug’s other guard. They were receiving messages about our location somehow.” Annin paused for a moment and looked down the tunnel beyond the limestone archway. “They knew a general region to look, but not a specific place. I guess that’s one thing to be thankful for.” She glanced at Riler. He gave her an uncomfortable look. “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing.” He turned away. “All right, it’s the eye. Gives me the shivers. Could you cover it up?”

  Annin pulled the patch over her disc of an eye. “Don’t worry, Riler, I don’t bite like the Nala.” She smiled.

  “Annin, that’s enough,” Ethet scolded her apprentice.

  Annin shrugged and continued. “Anyway, I tried to confuse both soldiers so they’d forget what had happened. Riler and I traveled as quickly as we could down the path and waited just long enough to know we weren’t being watched before we came back through.” She sat back on the stool, leaning against the long table behind her.

  Other than a slight pulsating hum, the room was quiet. Barba and Estos walked to the entrance of the tunnel and stood next to Andris.

  “We have a problem,” Barba said as she stared into the grayness.

  “I expected a little less of an understatement coming from a Wisdom Sister.” Andris leaned against the limestone and crossed his arms.

  “Don’t be so derisive, Andris.” She pointed a finger at his chest, then turned quickly to Annin. “What about Cairn, do they know him?” she asked.

  “They do. They know all of us who have come through or been over,” Annin said without emotion.

  Everyone in the room watched Barba pace. Finally Estos spoke up.

  “Barba, I know you’re thinking the same thing I am. We tried our theory with Annin, and it didn’t work. We need to see if she’ll go in for us.” He spoke directly to Barba as if no one else were in the room, but everyone looked at them quizzically.

  “It’s too soon.” Barba walked to the door with a concerned look on her face. “What if she . . .”

  “We don’t have a choice. Not only do we now need to get a message to Benedict that I am—that we all are—indeed alive, but we need to find out how Mudug is tracking all of us.”

  “What if it has something to do with the passage, what if they pick up on her, too?” Barba challenged the young king.

  “If that were the case, they would have been on Annin and Riler immediately. No.” Estos shook his head and ignored the bewildered stares of the others. “It has to be something else. She’s the only one we can use,” he said. His eyes held a look of certainty.

  “What lure do you suggest?” she asked, conceding to his decision.

  “She’ll do it for money,” Estos said.

  “Who in the blazes are you talking about?” Oberfisk turned around with his arms open wide. Annin spoke up.

  “Natalie. He’s talking about Natalie.”

  Ever
yone erupted into argument, drowning out Estos’ words, but Barba made them out well enough.

  “She’ll do it for money,” he repeated to the Sister.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The rain sounded like thousands of small firecrackers as it hit the barn’s metal roof. Nat’s three ewes paced in their pen, stomping at the dirt as she approached with a load of fresh hay. Her father bent over the hydraulic lift of the tractor, pale green and rusted with age. His slicker dripped water, a puddle forming by his left foot. She could hear the drip even over the incessant pounding of the rain. He turned and said something. She couldn’t hear him, but she still heard the drip, drip, drip. He opened his mouth again and thrust a finger in the air, pointing to a spot behind her. Drip, drip, drip . . .

  “What are their names?” Estos startled Nat. He looked over her shoulder.

  “Blue, Wally, and Rump.” She handed him a pitchfork. “Feed them since you’re here.” Estos dumped a hay flake in the wooden trough. “Why are you here?” she asked, suddenly aware how out of place he was.

  “Your father needs you to come with me.”

  “I doubt that, I still have to clean out their pen.” Nat laughed as she extended her hand to retrieve the pitchfork.

  “No, he needs our help.” Estos’ voice took on a tone of urgency. Nat looked over her shoulder. Her father no longer stood by the tractor. The base of a ladder appeared at her feet. Her father hung by one hand from the top rung.

  “Climb!” Estos yelled. She jumped onto the lowest rung, and the dirt floor around her disappeared. Her free leg dangled over a black pit.

  “Estos!” she cried.

  “Keep climbing.” His voice was distant.

  She climbed another rung, and the barn walls disappeared.

  “Daddy!” she cried and looked up. Her father kicked frantically at the air above her. She clambered up the ladder and grasped his feet, guiding them to the rungs. The moment they touched the cold metal, her father faded away. Nat stared at the empty space.

  “You’re at the top. Jump over and invite me in.” She felt Estos’ breath on her cheek. The ladder was leaning against a dark ledge. She slapped her hands on the barrier and scrambled over.

  “Take my hand and invite me in.” Estos hovered on the opposite side of the ledge. Gray light illuminated the darkness around him.

  “Come in?” Nat asked, confused by his request. He grasped her hand and jumped over the top of the barrier as if he weighed little more than a feather.

  “Where’s my father?” She peered over the ledge. A thick gray cloud obscured the ground.

  “He’s fine, Natalie,” he said dismissively. His pale eyes looked almost luminescent. He glanced around the dark space. She sensed he was questioning something.

  “Do me a favor, think of your favorite room.”

  The honey-colored walls of the theater erupted from the ground. Colored light filtered over the stage and seats. She looked up and gasped at the delicate flying buttresses floating above them.

  “Interesting choice,” Estos said as he perched on the edge of the stage. He gestured for her to sit.

  “What just happened?” she asked him with her eyes still locked on the floating ceiling.

  “You filled your dream space. Please sit, Natalie.”

  “My dream space?” she said in a confused voice. She ran her hand over the edge of the wooden stage.

  “It’s a place that protects you from dream manipulation.” Estos leaned forward and placed one hand perpendicular to the other. “My left hand is your dream.” He wiggled his fingers. “The dream stops where it meets my right hand. Above my right hand is your consciousness, still in a state of sleep, but out of the dream. Only you can find the access point to your dream, and only you can invite others in.” He clapped his hands together as if the explanation were obvious.

  She settled onto the stage next to him. “Your explanation doesn’t make sense. You’re part of my dream, so you shouldn’t be here,” she said, trying to follow his logic. She thought back to her dinner. She must have eaten something weird that was causing this dream. The walls around them grew transparent.

  “Focus, Natalie. Think of the theater.” The walls took shape again. “I’m not a figment of your dream. I have training that enables me to interject myself into a dream and move about freely.” He leaned closer to her. “I’d like to show you something.” He pulled a small folded paper from his pocket and smoothed it against the stage floor. A three-dimensional map appeared. Nat’s eyes widened when she looked at the tiny snow-covered mountains, forests, and a rust-colored river that cut through the heart of the map and poured into an ocean.

  “That’s amazing.” She ran her fingers through the clouds swirling above the map.

  “Would you like to see it up close?”

  She nodded, hoping she would remember at least a fraction of this dream. He took her hand, and a forest of ancient pine trees towered above them. She brushed her hand over a bough. The needles felt pliant, almost soft.

  “Run with me.” He clasped her hand in his, and they stepped onto a faint path covered in short grass and tiny blue flowers that grew low to the ground.

  “Fast, Natalie!” He dropped her hand. She chased after him. Her feet fell onto the narrow, overgrown path that wound its way past a red boulder, then an enormous tree trunk. Long branches formed arches over the path and let in only thin shafts of light. She ran and jumped over roots and fallen branches. Her feet were light. Even in her best race, she’d never run this fast before. Estos flew past the trees in front of her until he disappeared. The forest became less dense. She slowed her pace and found him leaning against a crooked tree at the edge of a wide field surrounded on all sides by the forest. He took her hand and brushed it over the rough bark.

  “Do you feel that?” he asked. She traced an elongated hole in the bark and nodded.

  “Remember it,” he said, then vanished.

  Nat whirled around. “Run back to the rock cliff where we started.” His voice was a whisper in her ear, but she couldn’t see him. She searched the branches of the tree, but only its leaves fluttered in the wind. She backed away from it and found the path into the forest. Her breath was easy and relaxed as she made her way along the trail. She could see Estos’ figure in her mind as she traced her way over the faint path. Her mind and feet were in perfect harmony.

  “Easy enough, then. I expected nothing less from you.” Estos hopped off the rocks as Nat came ripping around the red boulder and stopped at the base of the cliff. He took her hand and in one step they were back in the imagined theater. “Have a seat, please.” He placed his hand on the small of her back and gestured to the front row.

  I have to remember this, Nat thought. She watched him as he settled into the seat next to her. He couldn’t be much older than she was, but something about him seemed aged. She blushed when he caught her looking at him. “I hope I remember this dream. I’ll have to tell you about it,” she said, looking at the colored light streaming from the stage lights.

  “Natalie, this is not a dream.” His tone was as somber as the expression on his face.

  “Right, my little superwoman marathon through an unknown forest just a second ago really happened.” She laughed, unnerved by the seriousness in his gray eyes.

  “It did, in your mind. It won’t be like that when you enter the real forest. It’ll take much longer. About an hour to get there and back, if you run hard and don’t have any problems. I’ve seen you run at school—you’re fast on an empty track, but this will be different. Your head knows the path now.” He tapped her forehead lightly. “As much as I can remember it, anyway. There will be new branches and roots and . . .”

  She pressed her fingertips against her forehead, completely confused.

  “I’ve gotten ahead of myself,” he apologized. “When you wake up, I need you to take a small piece of paper and tuck
it into that opening in the crooked tree. Would you do that for me?” The earnestness in his face stopped Nat from asking what he’d put in her dinner.

  “Okay, let me see if I have this right.” She sat up straight. “You’re asking me to take a piece of paper, run through a forest, shove the paper into a tree, and then come back.”

  “There’s a little more to it than that, but basically, yes.” He nodded in agreement.

  She laughed. “Asleep Natalie is a little more open-minded than Awake Natalie. I have a strong feeling Awake Natalie is going to say thank you for the dinner and use of the bedroom and make her way back up to campus as fast as she can.” Nat relaxed back into the comfortable seat.

  “Would Awake Natalie agree to do it if we paid her?” Estos asked quickly.

  “Pay me? How much?” The offer brought back the sick feeling of insecurity she carried around on a daily basis. She knew she sounded desperate, even in a dream.

  “How much do you want?”

  Nat laughed again. He still looked so serious. She stopped laughing. “Thirty-five hundred dollars.” The math was easy. A month’s mortgage payment for her parents and the rest she owed for this semester’s tuition. This is a dream, right? Why not ask for dream wages? she thought.

  “You agree to do this for thirty-five hundred?” Estos leaned toward her, hand extended.

  “Yes. Why not? It will help you as well?” She took his hand.

  “You can’t even begin to imagine.” His hand wrapped around hers. “Agreed, then.” He dropped her hand. “When you wake up, Sister Barba will be in your room. She’ll draw a pattern on your arm sort of like the one she has.” He looked at her for acceptance. “It shouldn’t be permanent.”

  Nat nodded. The theater walls faded and the lights flickered. She looked toward the ledge that she and Estos had climbed over to get into her dream space. Gray clouds swirled behind it.

  “After Barba’s done and you’re dressed, you’ll go,” Estos said with a look of relief. He rose from the seat.