Seanna looked away before standing. “The earthquake,” she said. “We really must be going. We have a lot of ground to cover today. Time is short.”
I nodded and stood, moving to wake Aoife. As I bent to gently shake her shoulder, I glanced at Seanna staring off into the woods. This whole trip was starting to shine a spotlight on just how slow I could be. I cracked jokes about being a dumb jock all the time. But that was just a role I played. A niche I could fit myself neatly into without worrying about what the outside world thought. It wasn’t who I was, but it was who I’d made myself out to be for no other reason than it was easy. It gave me the excuse to not have to think too much, and if by some chance, I did have a thought running through my head I didn’t want to deal with, it gave me a reason to not express it out loud.
That’s what I did at that moment. A thought hit me, and I pushed it away like the dumb jock I thought I was. I didn’t speak it out loud; instead I ignored it until it went away like the gurgling in my stomach. If the earthquake opened the gateway, how did Seanna get through before that day? I promptly pushed the question aside and didn’t think about it again. Maybe there was something to the whole dumb jock thing after all.
***
We stuck to the woods throughout the day—to avoid any more trouble, Seanna claimed. I couldn’t see how that plan had worked out for us so far, but we picked our way around trees and bushes, sticking to animal trails when we could. The ground had leveled out, so that was a bonus. No more climbing up and down hills and ravines. Just a lot of walking, a lot of trees, a lot of unfamiliar forest sounds. A lot of being ignored by both girls.
We paused a few times throughout the day to rest and eat the berries and nuts Seanna had brought in her pack. I don’t want to keep harping on the food thing, but it had become a big deal by then. Or it had become a big deal and then went past big deal to no longer mattering because there didn’t appear to be any real food coming any time soon. I’d given up on the notion and so had my stomach. It never complained anymore. Not much, anyway.
Clouds covered the sky throughout the day. The big, puffy white kind, not any that threatened us with rain. When I grew tired of staring at trees and trying to spot as many different birds as possible, I resorted to picking out shapes in the clouds. I pointed out my first find to Aoife, a bunny with a tail like a pig, but she only glanced in the direction of sky I indicated and went back to walking without a word. Cloud-shape spotting without somebody to share with was like finding an amazing new gum during a “We Wear Dentures and We’re Proud of It” convention. Was there such a thing? I was sure there was. There was a convention for everything.
I’d like to point out something. An astute moviegoer would notice during “quest” movies, like The Lord of the Rings , they would skip through the journey with musical montages. Not only does it make the scene very dramatic with helicopter-mounted cameras circling our heroes as they walk across various terrains with the music swelling, but it helps skip over the boring part. The extremely boring part. Walking, all the walking. A hero’s quest involved a lot of walking. A lot. As we walked all that day, spent an uncomfortable night under a starless sky, and walked most of the next day, I found myself wishing the movie editor would just cue up the musical montage already.
Around noon, Seanna pronounced we were out of her clan’s forest, and by the time the sun began its descent down the other side of the sky, the density of the trees began to thin. I viewed it as a good thing. It meant less meandering and softer grass-covered ground to walk on instead of the sticks and leaves we’d spent the past few days treading on, the particularly sharp, dried limbs poking into the soles of our shoes. A couple hours later, there were hardly any trees, the grass grew to our knees, and the ground gave way under our feet, sinking in like stepping on a trampoline.
“Where are we?” Aoife asked, covering her mouth and nose with a hand. She made a small, forced gagging noise. “It smells like the boys’ locker room.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Ha, ha,” she said mirthlessly.
“We are nearing Sholto’s lands,” Seanna said, disgust lining the statement. “Lands? Ha! More like stinking, rotting cesspool. Filthy eyesore, scar of the world,” she added, more to herself than for Aoife’s and my benefit.
“How do you really feel about it?” Aoife muttered.
I hid a small, tight smile. She had hardly talked over the past couple days and for Aoife to go that long without insulting me or letting her sarcastic flag fly was a cause for concern.
“Who’s Sholto?” I asked.
“Protector of these lands, so to speak,” Seanna answered.
“So, to speak?”
“Protector is a relative term in this case. It’s his magic that keeps these lands like this.”
“Why would anybody choose to live in a place like this?” Aoife said over the sucking sound of pulling her shoe out of the soft ground.
“His people thrive in this environment.”
“Who are his people?” I couldn’t imagine anybody who’d want to live here. We had to go around standing pools of rank-smelling water. The grass gave way to weeds and the few remaining trees were dark shadows of their former selves, no longer living things.
“His people,” Seanna repeated absently. Her face darkened with every step we took. “I have the feeling you’ll find out exactly who his people are soon enough.” She pointed ahead of us.
A long, black line rose up a couple hundred yards from us like an infected scar, just like Seanna had said. It looked like somebody had dragged a black crayon across the landscape. Even the late-afternoon sunlight couldn’t penetrate into the dark haze of dead trees.
“We’re going there?” Aoife asked.
Her tone echoed what I was thinking. I didn’t want to go in there any more than she did. Even from that distance, the swamp looked like something out of a movie. Dark, misty, eerie, and foreboding—nothing but trouble for any who ventured beyond its murky borders.
“That gash,” Seanna said, her voice dripping scorn, “would take at least a week to go around. Going through will only take us a day. Barring trouble,” she added.
“What kind of trouble?” I asked.
“Does it matter?” Aoife responded. “Trouble is trouble, and it seems like trouble on this world means nothing but death.”
“Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine,” I snapped.
Aoife waved a dismissive hand.
“If our luck holds out, we’ll be able to pass through without gaining Sholto’s notice,” Seanna said. Her eyes remained on the line of dead trees.
“Our luck?” Aoife barked a laugh. “If it weren’t for bad luck, or however that stupid saying goes.”
I couldn’t help but agree with her. If it weren’t for bad luck, we wouldn’t have any luck at all. Certainly, a pessimistic outlook on life, but accurate when evaluating the past few days and particularly the past few years for me.
“You don’t think we’ll come across any of them?”
Them? Who are them? I shouldn’t be asking that question in my head. I shouldn’t have to voice it out loud. Just when I thought I was starting to get a handle on this world, something new popped up like a jack-in-the-box just to prove I knew nothing. Call me Jon Snow.
“No, if we see one, it will be Sholto. His kind is a secluded people,” she sneered. “They’d just as soon hide from you and wait for you to leave than confront you if you come on their land.”
“So, can we cross or what? I really don’t feel like putting my life on the line again. Our lives,” I said, including Aoife. “I mean, if we can make it through without coming across whoever they are, then I’m cool with it.”
“Oh, I would bet the chances of coming across Shalto are too great to wish for unhindered passage. He is their shaman, their leader. It is his duty to allow or deny passage on their lands, something he does not do often.”
“And here we are about to traipse across,” Aoife commented. “That make
s lots of sense. Here we are!” Aoife yelled at the approaching swamp. “Come get us because, you know, we’re coming on your land. On purpose. Yeah!”
“Shut up, Aoife,” I muttered.
“This is the quickest way,” Seanna said. “We do not have the time to go around.”
The air grew more fowl the closer we came to that dark line of rot. The ground became mushier. We tried to step in the driest spots, but I misstepped and my foot sank to my ankle in muck. “I think I’d prefer the extra week.” I pulled my foot free, nearly losing my shoe in the process.
“Speed has become imperative,” Seanna said. “Lortmor will not stop coming for you until we reach Daresh. Trust me, if he can’t get you, he will do whatever it takes to keep you out of Daresh’s reach.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Why won’t he want me going to Daresh?”
“Lortmor knows he will not be able to reach you once you’re under the protection of Daresh.” She shook her head, making up our minds for us. “The longer you stay out here, the longer your life stays in danger. Dealing with Sholto will not be easy, but none will dare pursue you into the swamp.”
“If it’s that bad in there, why in the world would we go in?” Aoife demanded.
“We are more likely to make it out on the other side. Lortmor’s goons are not.”
“That does little for my confidence,” Aoife muttered.
All arguments died off as we entered the swamp, crossing under a dead tree that had fallen against another tree that looked like it wasn’t fit to hold itself up, much less another tree. After only a few minutes, it became less of picking the driest spots to step and more of picking the spots that didn’t cause our feet to sink to our knees. Pickings became slim, and all of our pants were covered in thick, dark sludge that stank like garbage on hot asphalt.
“Maybe we should turn back,” I suggested after nearly falling over in the stuff. The only thing that saved me was a slime-covered limb that bent nearly in half but held up enough to keep me from going over. I wiped the goop off my hands, leaving a smear across my hip.
“No, there’s no time,” Seanna insisted.
“Maybe if we backtrack, we can find a better path,” Aoife said hopefully.
“It’s best we don’t,” Seanna said. “There are things in the swamp that could be following us.”
“Things?” I asked with a high-pitched hitch in my voice.
“How do we know these things aren’t just waiting up there for us?” Aoife said, her voice rising. “Maybe you should have told us about these things that may or may not be out here waiting for us! Stalking us!”
“It’s too late to turn back now. Our only option is to keep pushing on,” Seanna said.
“At least I haven’t seen any leeches.” I tried to put a laugh in my voice, but it only came out with a crack.
“Of course, there are leeches.” Seanna glanced over her shoulder, gracing us with a smile full of mischief. “They can grow to the size of a rat, especially in a swamp like this.”
“Very funny,” Aoife sneered.
“Oh, I’m not joking.”
22
Sholto
“What was that?” Seanna froze with her leg up to mid-calf in muck.
“What?” Aoife asked.
“Something just brushed past my foot. Did you see anything?”
“No.” I stared at the water’s black surface.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Seanna’s voice rose a little. “Didn’t you see the water move or anything?”
“Just hold still,” I said. I stared at the inky surface.
“I don’t see anything. How could anybody see anything in this mess?” Aoife remarked.
“What was it?” I asked.
“How am I supposed to know,” Seanna said. “This stink hole is full of creatures that make a living in this sludge. All I know is something brushed my leg. It felt big.”
“Oh, no. No way. Nope,” Aoife said. “I’m outta here.” She turned to look for a path back the way we came.
I couldn’t blame her. I was about to join her when I noticed Seanna’s face twitch around the corners of her mouth. “What?”
“You two. Really,” she laughed.
Aoife swore under her breath.
“What?” I asked again.
Seanna laughed even louder. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but mess with you two. You both were walking like something was going to shoot out of the water and drag you under at any moment.”
“You were kidding?” I said.
“Yes.”
Aoife swore again.
“Nothing brushed your leg?” I confirmed.
“No, nothing bigger than bugs.” She suppressed her laughter to a giggle. “Come on, we need to keep moving. Stop being babies.”
“Oh, I’d sssay,” came a voice from the gloom around us, “there are sssome thingsss bigger than bugsss.”
Seanna jumped and nearly fell into the stinking water.
I thought I might have screamed in surprise, but realized it was Aoife standing behind me who had. Okay, maybe I did too. If I didn’t, it was a great demonstration of self-control with a little bladder control thrown in for good measure.
A dark shape crawled around a tree that had rotted, snapped, and fallen over about seven feet from the water. The thing wore a cloak that blended in perfectly with the gray and black palette the swamp painted. It clung to the dead tree like a bug, face shadowed in a hood pulled over its head.
“Sholto,” Seanna said, regaining some of her composure.
“I heard you travel where you please like the whole world isss yoursss, Assshling,” the thing hissed.
“Where did you hear that?” Seanna asked.
“One hearsss a lot when one choosssesss to lisssten.” The hood tilted to the side as if Sholto had chosen that moment to listen. “The air tellsss many ssstories.”
“It’s telling me to gag at the moment,” Aoife murmured.
“We are in a hurry,” Seanna said. “There was no time for the formalities of seeking your permission.” That was the closest she would get to offering up an apology. “Trust me, we have no desire to be here any longer than necessary. We’re just passing through.”
The hooded head tilted the opposite direction. “I hear you just passed through the men of the mountain’sss land. The cost was dear.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. I dreaded the answer, but I needed to know.
The deep shadows in the hood turned my way. A chill slid down my spine like a drop of ice water.
“I hear you carry a heavy heart, Gatekeeper.” Sholto slid a few feet down the tree, moving as slow and methodical as a sloth. “We are all asked to pay a price at one time or another in our livesss. Sssometimes the price is our life. Ssso I hear.” He slipped into the water and stood. He was only about as tall as Aoife, but he rounded his back. His head in the hood jutted forward a bit.
“The quicker we make it through your lands, the less risk there is to you,” Seanna said.
“Indeed. A much lessss risssk would have been not to come into our land at all.”
“Then let us pass and we’ll be gone.”
“The way you go would not lead you out.”
“Where would it lead us?” Aoife asked.
“Death.”
“I vote we don’t go that way,” I said.
“I think we can take care of ourselves, Sholto,” Seanna said.
“Yesss. I hear your magic isss great.”
Granted I was new to the whole magic thing, but the note in Sholto’s voice held an undisguised challenge of Seanna’s power.
“Great enough to get through this garbage-filled hole you call home,” Seanna bristled.
“Then by all means, continue with my blessingsss.” The cloaked figure stepped aside, waving an invitation for us to continue.
“Thank you,” Seanna said stiffly.
“But,” Sholto went on, “it isss a most painful way to die, I hear.”
&n
bsp; “What is?” Aoife asked.
“Digesssted ssslowly.”
“By what?” Aoife swallowed hard.
“There are thingsss in these waters that only the most powerful of magicsss can deter. They have great resistance, much like a balataur, I hear.” The darkened hood moved meaningfully in Seanna’s direction.
A vein rose on her forehead as she clenched her jaw.
Could he have known what happened in the Ashling city?
“A mossst tragic way to die, I think,” Sholto continued. “Essspecially for a Gatekeeper. A waste, I think.”
“I vote we don’t go that way,” I repeated.
“Which way would you sssuggest then?” Seanna said through clenched teeth, mocking Sholto.
“Oh, thisss way,” He waved an arm to the left. “Or that way.” He waved his other to the right. “Either way, I think you’d end up slowly dissssolving in a belly.”
“I vote we go back and go around,” I amended my vote. The risk of becoming something’s dinner didn’t appeal to me. Seanna glared at me. “What? I don’t know about you but being swallowed whole and digested isn’t on my bucket list. I’ll pass, thanks.”
“Will you show us the way through, Sholto?” Aoife asked.
I glanced over my shoulder at her. After the whole balataur kidnapping thing, she would have been the last person I would have guessed would accept help from an unknown thing, but she had her secret B.S. detector. Her golden eyes burned through the mists as she looked at the cloaked figure.
“That’s not a good idea,” Seanna said. “We have permission. We can make it through without his help. We just have to keep heading southwest.”
Aoife ignored her and turned toward me. “We can trust him, Gaige.”
“Would you mind not aiming those at me?” Since she had revealed her empathic abilities, I’d caught her turning her odd-colored eyes my direction from time to time, but to have her look fully at me with them, turned up to eleven and in their full glory, set my skin crawling. I tried to turn off my emotions. Is it possible to not feel anything? I wondered what she saw when she looked at me. I was horrible at sorting out my own emotions. My emotional aura or whatever probably looked like somebody dragged a finger across a rainbow.
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 21
