18
Power Awakening
The next thirty minutes were pure, unabashed torture. I’m pretty sure it was only around thirty minutes, but it felt like a couple eternities. Jae went on and on, nonstop rambling about whatever popped in his annoying, ratty head. It was worse than Dario’s numbers. By far. No competition. I wanted to lean over, just as casual as I please, take off my shoes, and shove my two-day-old socks in his annoying mouth.
Aoife glared at me like everything was my fault. Like I had forced her to choose an end seat, leaving the only empty seat for Jae to take right across from her. She had a front row seat to the monologue.
Even Seanna’s parents grew weary of his constant chatter. Their expressions grew duller as time passed and words kept spilling out of his mouth. Seanna, on my other side, refused to look at me. She kept her head down, picking at the nuts and berries on the table in front of her.
“And what’s with those clothes?” Jae went on. “They’re ridiculous!” He laughed, a high-pitched chatter like two squirrels fighting.
He directed the comment toward Seanna, but Aoife was well aware she wore similar clothing. Her glare turned Jae’s direction and I pushed my chair back. I stood and dropped the nut I had been fiddling with on the table.
“I’m going to get some air.”
Aoife shot me a look saying “don’t you dare,” but I turned and headed out an arched opening across from the entrance. It led to a balcony that wrapped out of sight around the tree. I followed it around until I found a shadowed spot free of the light coming from the plants. I leaned my elbows on the railing that circled with the balcony and sighed. I watched the lights twinkle around the city. As I looked around, I saw less and less movement up in the trees. It seemed like life for the Ashlings was winding down for the night. All was calm and peaceful in the tree city, the only noise a light tickling of breeze through the leaves. I closed my eyes and tried to let it wash over me. I needed it to calm my buzzing mind and beating heart. It wasn’t until Jae was introduced as Seanna’s betrothed that I realized the true feelings I had been harboring for her. Stupid! What did I expect? I was going to hook up with an alien? I’m not Captain Kirk.
“I’m sorry, Gaige.”
My stomach sank. So much for finding peace and calm. See ya later, it’s been nice! I turned to face Seanna. “For what, exactly?”
“Not telling you.” She stood, looking out over the city. Anywhere but at me. She held her arms in front, twisted together.
“Not telling me what? You haven’t told me anything, have you?”
“I had reasons.” Her voice rose.
“Of course, you did,” I said, trying to force my voice to be as hard as possible. I turned back to the railing. “Look, I just want to get whoever…whatever is supposed to help my mom and get out of here.”
“You thought…” Her voice trailed off into a deep exhale of breath. “He’s not here, Gaige.”
I had no idea what to do with that. She never said the help she promised my mom was here at her tree city, but I never asked. I had just assumed. I waited for the anger to rise. I waited for it to claw out of whatever deep hole where it kept hidden and come flying out at her. I waited for the rage. I wanted it. It didn’t come. Instead, something that felt a lot like defeat crept around the corner. Not the kind of defeat that made me want to tell Seanna to take Aoife and me home tomorrow. It was the kind that told me I was in this for the long haul. Not that I had put up much fight so far, but I knew she could tell me we had to walk around this world twice to get where we needed to go, and I’d tighten my shoelaces and tell her to point the way. How poetic does that sound? How stupid? Funny how both sat on a razor’s edge. What’s the difference between the two? I had no idea.
“Then where?” I asked.
“A few more days’ walk from here.” A bit of optimism crept into her voice.
“You should have told me,” I said.
“That he wasn’t here? I didn’t know you thought he was.”
“Not just that. Anything! I don’t even know who he is. I don’t know what’s going on here. I don’t know what a Gatekeeper is or why I am one.” Ah, welcome my old friend, Anger. “I don’t know who you are!” I jabbed a finger at her. “You should have told me.”
“Told you that I’m a tree?” she snapped back in her own little flash of anger. “Told you that I’m supposed to marry the most annoying Ashling to ever set foot on Alisundi? You think I’m looking forward to spending my life with…him ?” She waved a hand back inside as a high peal of laughter sounded right on cue.
I wasn’t quite sure that was the most important thread of argument, but I went with it. “You’re going to marry him, so obviously you do.”
“It’s. Arranged. You. Blundering. Idiot!” Each word came out in its own little sentence before she snapped her mouth closed. She pursed her lips before blowing out a breath. She visibly forced the tension from her body. “I’m sorry. You couldn’t have known. I told you before that my clan is looking to merge with a neighboring clan. That’s how they’re doing it. Jae is Dashisher , ‘Father’s son,’ for his clan.”
Finally, I was getting a straight answer. It made my own tension ease up and the anger slink back into the shadows. “So, when your dad dies, he will take over leadership of both clans?”
She shook her head. “No. It doesn’t work that way. A merger is nothing more than opening the borders between our clans so that we may pass between them without resistance. The clans stay separate, but we share the forests. Really, my clan is making out better in the deal. Jae’s clan is small, but they have lots of forest to expand into. It is our clan who will be moving to their forest as we grow. Eventually, his clan will be swallowed up by ours.”
“He’ll never be leader of your clan?”
“Oh, thank the Leaves and Roots, no!” She laughed. Actually laughed.
It made me smile, but it didn’t last long. My stomach unclenched a little with the knowledge she wasn’t marrying Jae on her own accord. Still, there was so much she hadn’t told me. A breeze rustled through the trees and I turned to face it head on, letting its touch cool my face. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine I was just out in the woods on Earth. Maybe out camping, enjoying time away from everything with my family. It wasn’t a hard image to wrap around myself. On that balcony, we were surrounded by all the sounds and smells of the forest. Bugs and frogs sung their nightly chorus. The breeze smelled of earth and vegetation.
“Can I tell you something?” Seanna asked from behind me.
I lifted and dropped a shoulder in what I thought was a nonchalant manner.
“It’s about me appearing to you in this form.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “It was more likely I’d follow a pretty face. I get it.”
“It’s not just that.”
I felt the balcony move as she shifted from one foot to another. The fact that her slight weight could move it like that unnerved me.
“Then what?” I asked, clutching the railing a little tighter.
She blew out a long breath. “Even if I had come to you in my Ashling form, you would have followed me.”
“How do you figure?” Confident much?
“I used magic on you.”
“Oh.” Somehow, I didn’t really find it all that surprising.
“I didn’t have a choice,” she blurted out. “I was so scared you wouldn’t come with me. You got so mad at me when I brought up your parents. I didn’t plan on it at first, but I had to make sure you came through the gateway.”
“Why?” I turned back to her, leaning the small of my back against the railing. “Why was it so important I came here? What does it matter to you that my mom is a drooling idiot? What’s in it for the Ashlings?”
She dipped her head. Her long, blond hair fell in a partially opened curtain framing her face. I could see her chest rising and falling slightly with breath. I could almost imagine smoke puffing out her ears while she tried to come up with some rou
ndabout way to answer the questions. Had I finally broken through her wall of vagueness? Was I finally going to get the answers I deserved? The answers I wasn’t sure I even needed or wanted?
She crossed the space between us until she stood right in front of me. My heart lurched and thumped twice hard against my chest. As if she knew it was pounding inside me and wanted to feel for herself, she placed a hand on the center of my chest. She looked up at me, her eyes watery with tears that hadn’t escaped their blue prisons.
“Yes, there is something in it for us,” she said. “And for that, they…we…I will be forever in your debt.”
The sane question, the non-hormone filled one, I should have asked then was, “What’s in it for you?” Instead, I asked, “What do you really look like?”
She glanced at me and a small smile formed on her lips. “Don’t we all look alike?”
“Yeah, kind of!” I laughed.
“I don’t think this form’s usefulness has played out yet,” she said. “The transformation is very painful, so I think I’ll stay like this until it’s no longer needed.”
“I see,” I said, the laughter dying. I wondered if its sole usefulness was for me. She stood close. Very close. Only a few wisps of the breeze stood between us. Would I have let her that close if she looked like one of her people?
I didn’t notice her move, but she was even closer, only a single breeze wisp between us. My chin was nearly on my chest as I looked down at her. I couldn’t pull my eyes from hers. They drew me, inviting me to dive into their clear blue eternity and swim forever. She smelled earthy. She smelled like a clear spring day in the woods with a hint of flowers catching the breeze from a patch somewhere off in the distance, making its way to me.
A loud thunk vibrated the balcony and I was pulled out of her eyes. “What the—”
“Get inside,” she said, cutting me off. She stepped away from me.
“What was that?”
“Would you for once in your life shut up and do what you’re told?” She grabbed my arm in a surprisingly strong grip and pushed me toward the doorway.
Lights around the city flared, illuminating it. I blinked at the sudden brightness and squinted just in time to see a large form come around the tree. It towered over Seanna, standing at least twice as tall as her. Shouts rang out all around the city.
“Get inside, Gaige,” Seanna ordered again. She turned toward the huge form, spreading her feet and balling her hands into fists.
Several of the leaves swiveled to shine like a spotlight on the thing. My mind didn’t want to believe what I saw. My first thought was it had to be just a movie or bad dream. That had to be it. Minotaurs didn’t exist. But that’s what stood over Seanna. Its massive head, vaguely bull-shaped, held two wicked horns at least two feet each from base to tip.
“Seanna!” Dario called from inside.
You’re too late , I thought. The thing bore down on her and she waved a hand at him. Whatever her intention, it didn’t work. It swung a massive arm, sweeping her aside in a flashback to what the Jo-Shar had done to her on the mountain. This time, there was much more violence in the motion, sending her tumbling through the air. She flew over the railing and disappeared into the darkness.
“Seanna!” I yelled.
The thing turned its head toward me, its black, beady eyes burrowing into me. “Gatekeeper. You will come with me,” it growled.
I managed to get my feet working again and backed away, not trusting myself to actually turn and run without tripping over myself.
The thing’s black lip twitched. “You run, I break your legs so you run no more.”
“Be gone, beast!” Dario appeared at my side holding a long, wooden staff.
The beast gurgled a laugh. “Your magic has no effect on me, Ashling. I’ll take the Gatekeeper, you live.”
In response, the Ashling struck out with the staff with lightning fast speed, aiming for the beast’s large head. It flinched to the side, taking the strike in its shoulder. Its face twitched with the pain, but that was the only outward indication it felt it at all. Again, Dario struck, but the minotaur was ready, catching the staff in a large paw. It jerked the Ashling forward by the staff, then jabbed it back, jamming it into Dario’s midsection. Dario’s breath left his lungs with a grunt as he went sliding across the walkway.
Again, the beast gurgled a laugh. “You like to try, Gatekeeper?” He tossed the staff at me.
Out of instinct, I made to grab it, fumbled it, but somehow managed to not drop it. I held it in front of me with both hands, a little surprised by its heft. Honestly, every nerve in my body screamed to just run. Forget its threat to break my legs. I was relatively sure I could outrun the thing. No one could be that big and fast enough to—
It faked a move at me. Just a twitch of its arms in my direction, and I flinched back, nearly stumbling over my own feet.
Again, that gurgling laugh. “Put stick down and come,” he commanded.
Should I have dropped the staff and run? Absolutely. Did I? Nope. I swung the staff awkwardly. The monster raised an arm, swatting the pole away with a muscled forearm. Just the force of his deflection caused me to stumble. Oh man, this is not going to end well . I collected my weight under me and took another swing. It was more pathetic than the first attempt. The minotaur didn’t even have to block it, just lean back a little and the pole swung harmlessly by.
“I grow tired of game. Come, boy, or I’ll send you to join your Ashling in disguise.” It jerked his head to where Seanna went over the side.
Something clicked deep inside me. My friend roared to life in me. Anger infected me like in a disease. Visions filled my eyes. Although I hadn’t been there, I imagined my parents’ wreck. My mom awake and hurt, trapped in the car with my dad’s body flung out somewhere on the mountainside. Anger boiled. I saw my mom’s outburst the last time I saw her, saw what she had become. A shell of the person she used to be. Anger clinched oily fingers around my heart. I saw the made-up vision of Elder Narit blown apart by the flying thing. Anger transformed into rage. I saw Seanna flying head over feet over the side.
I saw the beast standing in front of me.
I lowered the staff. My chest heaved with each breath.
“Good. Come and there won’t be much pain,” it grunted.
I saw the light plant bend to my will. I saw the Ashling fly off into the bushes. I saw what I had to do.
I wasn’t quite sure how I was supposed to accomplish it, though. I imagined the beast flying away from me like the Ashling had. I pushed at the beast with my mind, envisioning it spinning away into the dark night. It didn’t fly off, but it did stagger back a step. A look of confusion crossed its face. I pushed at him harder and its hooves slid, leaving gouges in the wood. I pushed even harder. The tree walls creaked and the railing actually snapped as I kept pushing at the beast.
Finally, it stumbled back, its black eyes rolling around, trying to spot what was assaulting it. I had an opening.
Lifting the staff, I ran at the beast. I swung the pole in a large overhead arch, pushing on the weapon with my mind. The crack reverberated around the forest. The staff broke in half, sending vibrations up my arms that nearly shook them out of their sockets. The other half of the staff went spinning off somewhere.
It wasn’t the only thing to crack. I was pretty sure the beast’s skull added to the sound.
It blinked, its eyes growing dim as blood poured from its nostrils. It staggered back, arms waving weakly at its sides, trying in vain to catch its balance.
“Get off this tree,” I growled at it. I gathered all the rage inside me and flung my hand at the thing.
The beast flew against the railing, flipped over, and tumbled over the side.
Air filled my head and I staggered, trying to fight off the darkness closing around my vision. It was a losing battle from the beginning, really. I knew I had done something I shouldn’t have. I had pushed too hard. I felt myself tip over and then nothing.
19
Taken
The cool wood chilled the heat in my cheeks, although darkness still poured into my brain like sludge. I knew I should get up, but I didn’t. I knew I would be able to if I tried. At least, my ego told me I could, but lying there with my face pressed against the polished wood was the easy thing. Just let the oily blackness leak in and take over my mind. Let it pull me under and maybe when I woke up, I’d find this had all been only a dream. Maybe a nightmare.
***
Gaige pressed his face into the cool sheets and willed himself to cry. But he couldn’t. The tears were there, but they just didn’t want to spill out. He imagined crying until he couldn’t cry anymore. Then somebody would find him asleep, surrounded by wet sheets like a tear-stained halo.
Or maybe when he woke up, he’d find this had all been only a dream.
***
Wind blew through the trees. It reminded me of a tree outside my window. It wasn’t all that tall, maybe about twenty feet to the top. What it lacked in height, though, it made up for in width. About five feet off the ground, limbs reached out everywhere. Limbs jutted out of limbs, forming a dome of branches and leaves for the rest of its fifteen feet. When it was in full bloom, the wind would rush through it and make it hum a tune of wanderlust. That’s what Aoife had said, anyway. Brian said it was creepy as hell.
I heard the trees whispering to me. I couldn’t understand what they said. They spoke in a language I didn’t understand.
***
He didn’t cry, and nobody found him fast asleep, worn from the emotions of the day. Instead, somebody found him face down on his bed like a spoiled little kid. He didn’t care what they thought of him. Why should he? They didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.
The door creaked ever so slightly as it opened. He didn’t hear anybody cross the room, their footsteps muffled by the soft, carpeted floor, but the bed sunk to one side as somebody sat down on the edge. He knew it was Aunt Stacy. Nobody else would have cared enough to check on him. Both sets of grandparents were dead. His uncle died in a war far away. His dad. Dead. His mom in the hospital in a coma. Who else was there?
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 18
