“It is,” Seanna replied, deciding to not rise to the bait. “But until we come across water to wash this stuff off, the best we can hope for is to keep moving through this grass. It should rub a fair amount off before it dries on.”
“That makes sense,” I added, feeling the grass for myself.
“Kiss up,” Aoife said.
“Well, it does,” I said defensively.
“Does it? Yeah? Well, I’m tired,” she snapped. “Don’t tell me you’re not. You don’t think I’ve noticed how you hunch your shoulders more and more as the day wears on? Well, I have. You’re exhausted. You’re pale, you have bags under your eyes, and I don’t know what’s keeping you upright.”
I lifted and squared my shoulders. “I’m fine.”
“Sure, you are. When’s the last time you slept?” she demanded.
Three days?
“You barely eat,” she said.
The more she pointed it out, the more I felt the weariness. It felt like the weight of the world eased its big butt right onto my shoulders like a grandma sliding into her favorite chair on the front porch. Slow, methodical, and inevitable. I fought to keep my shoulders up.
“I’m fine,” I insisted. “I can go a little further before we stop. Don’t put this on me. If you need to stop—”
“No,” Aoife nearly shouted. “Don’t you dare turn this on me. If we’re going to go, then let’s go.”
“Besides, like she said, the grass might help get the mud off before we stop for the night,” I went on in a desperate attempt to pacify her.
“I said we can go, didn’t I? I didn’t imagine that, did I? I said it out loud, right?” she asked Seanna who only rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to pacify me. Just go.”
“Just an hour or two, then we’ll stop,” I added in my great and unstoppable wisdom.
“If you don’t shut up, I’m going to stuff your pants in your mouth and you won’t have to worry about getting the mud off,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
“Okay, we’re going,” I said.
“Whatever.”
“Finally,” Seanna said. “Let’s go.”
She put a hand on my arm to guide me into the tall grass. I felt a thrill shoot up my arm at her touch, amplified by the knowledge it wasn’t magical in nature. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Aoife was really following. She was, arms folded and head down. Her grimy hair, no longer the picture of perfect black silk, hung in curtains around her face.
***
We traveled for most of the day. Aoife didn’t remind me of my promise to stop and I didn’t bring it up either. I knew she wouldn’t be happy about it, but if resting meant so much to her, it was her responsibility to make sure it happened. I was happy talking to Seanna the whole time. The weariness I had felt earlier in the day melted away like mist burned away by the morning light.
We talked about many things. Mostly, I filled in the gaps in her knowledge of Earth. There were surprisingly few. She also told me many things about Alisundi. Two topics avoided like a mound of pissed-off fire ants were my parents and Jae. I was okay with that. There wasn’t much to say about it, anyway. Nothing we didn’t already know.
If I were able to forget I was on another world, pursued by creatures and monsters that either wanted to kidnap me or eat me, I’d say it was one of my better days in a while. I felt happy. Truly happy. I couldn’t explain exactly why. It was hard not to think about Seanna as an Ashling and the fact she was betrothed to Jae. It wasn’t something I could just toss aside like mental garbage. I did my best to ignore it every time it crept up in my brain. I suppressed it. Pushed it down. Made it go away the best I could. Sometimes when Seanna strayed too far into the inner workings of the Ashlings, bordering on the topic of her betrothed, she would veer away like the topic was a deer caught in our topical headlights. The subject change was a hard right into the ditch, barely missing trees. Still, I knew what she was avoiding, but she’d look at me with those clear blue eyes and the thought would be gone like magic. Deer? What deer?
There’s not much to be said about the plain we traveled. It was just that. A wide, flat plain with only tall grass and an occasional thin, scraggily tree as its only vegetation. We didn’t pass any water, a pool or small creek, to wash in, so we still stank like a compost heap when the sun started to push itself into the horizon.
We stamped out a wide swath of grass to make a place for us to lay out our blankets. We sat and watched the sun finish melting away in a brilliant display of oranges, pinks, and purples. It reminded me of the night I stepped through the gateway. It looked so much like the Sun back home, but I knew it wasn’t. I was watching another star sink away beyond the horizon. As more stars winked into existence in the sky, I wondered if one could be the Earth’s Sun.
When night had taken complete control, we huddled close together in the very center of our crop circle ring like the edges provided some kind of protection from whatever lurked beyond that boundary. I lay on my back, my blanket under me. It was warm enough that I didn’t need it as a cover. I laced my fingers under my head and studied the sky, trying to pick out the constellations Seanna had shown me the previous night.
Forever cold, Aoife rolled herself into a blanket burrito and pushed her back against my side. She was pissed at me for taking Seanna’s side and for not stopping like I had promised but being cold and scared of what might live out on the plains trumped being angry. I’d be willing to bet she wasn’t that close because I provided some sort of protection, though. It was more likely she hoped if something came after us, it’d eat me first and give her time to get away.
Seanna lay down on my other side and lay a hand on my bicep. I turned my head and smiled. There was no moon, but the thousands of stars provided enough light for me to see she had a smile of her own.
“You stink,” she said.
“Deal with it,” I chuckled.
I lowered my arms to my sides. Seanna slid closer and pointed out a dim star, its light nearly drowned out by two nearby stars. She told me the story of The Three Brothers. I don’t know what happened to the sickly brother after his brothers locked him away in the dungeon to keep him away from their dying mother. A few minutes into the story, I closed my eyes and darkness swept over me.
24
Balataur Attack
“Gaige.”
“I just barely fell asleep,” I groaned.
“There’s something out there.”
Weariness fled and I opened my eyes. “What?”
Aoife leaned over me with her hand on my chest, but her golden eyes looked off in the distance, searching. “I can feel them out there.”
“Them who?” I asked, maybe a little too loudly.
“Shh,” she hissed. “I don’t know, but they’re definitely not here to congratulate you on your ability to be quiet.”
I frowned and sat up. The dark of night surrounded us, the sky an all-encompassing black. Only a few stars dotted the night tapestry. I held my breath and strained to hear anything in the grass outside our circle. “Where’s Seanna? She was just right here.”
“Gone,” Aoife whispered.
“She was just right here,” I insisted.
“Shh!” Her hiss came more urgent. “That was last night,” she said.
“Tonight,” I corrected.
“Gaige, it’s morning. Can you just shut up now?”
“Morning? But I just fell asleep…” My voice trailed off. Morning? How could it be morning? I was exhausted. There was no way I could have slept the entire night and still feel like a semi had run over me, backed up, and did it again.
A rustling in the grass just outside our field of vision brought both our heads around like they were connected to the same swivel.
“Maybe it’s Seanna,” I whispered, not really believing it.
Aoife turned, looking in all directions. “Oh, no. We’re surrounded.” Panic rose in her voice.
The traces of weariness poured out of my body and I climbed to
my feet, bent over in a crouch. “We need to find Seanna,” I breathed.
“If you know where she ran off to in the middle of the night, be my guest.” Aoife pushed closer, wrapping her fingers around my arm.
I didn’t think it was a good time for sarcasm. Then again, anytime was a good time for sarcasm as far as Aoife was concerned. Her smart mouth was a defense. No, a weapon.
Something large moved in the grass in front of us.
“We can’t stay here,” I whispered. I bent and snatched the two blankets off the ground. It might have been a stupid thought to pop into my head, but I was responsible for losing our previous covers, I wasn’t about to lose more.
“Where are we going?” Aoife hissed in my ear. Her breathing was quick and short. With her pressed so close against me, I could feel her heart thump against my arm. “Weren’t you paying attention? We’re surrounded. Their colors are everywhere.”
“What’s out there?” I asked.
She gritted her teeth and hissed, “I. Don’t. Know—”
A grunt from behind us cut her off. My own heart started hammering a tune to match the beat Aoife’s had begun. Like in a bad horror movie, we slowly turned to the sound. A large, dark shape materialized above the grass just outside our crop circle. Did I say large? Massive. The thing’s bulk moved toward us, two horns protruding a foot from its head.
“No,” Aoife breathed. Her fingernails dug in my skin.
Five more joined the first, pushing into our cozy little clearing. Aoife was right. We were surrounded.
“Don’t come any closer!” Fear made my voice crack. It was hard to sound commanding when I sounded like I’d just hit puberty.
“Or what, Earthling?” One of the beasts grunted. “You’ll squirm into the ground like the boneless, little worm you are?”
A ripple of snorts went around the circle. I figured that was their laugh. It sounded like pigs snuffing at the ground for the last bits of feed.
“We’re not as helpless as you think.” I hoped I put more conviction in that statement than I heard. It sounded more like desperation. “I’ve killed two of you already.”
More snorting.
“There be no balconies to trip us off of,” another said.
“Let us stomp them into the ground and be done with it,” a third said.
“No,” the first grunted. “The boy is required alive.”
“The girl is not,” a newcomer to the conversation suggested.
Aoife pushed even closer to me. Her nails cut so deep into my arm I thought I felt blood trickle down my arm but couldn’t pull my eyes away from the beasts long enough to look.
“Let us mush her and be gone with the boy,” a smaller balataur said, his voice clipped with impatience.
“Come any closer and you’ll regret it.” I tried my best to growl the threat. I doubted its effect.
Another ripple of grunting laugher confirmed it.
I grabbed Aoife’s arm, pulled her against my chest, and wrapped my arms around her. “Stay close,” I whispered and closed my eyes.
She leaned into me, her arms folded between us. I dug down into myself, trying to find the place where my power was stored. I still didn’t have a clue how it worked. All I had to go on was my fight with the balataurs in the Ashling city. I brought to mind all the images I usually fought to keep away. Mom trapped in the wrecked car while Dad lay somewhere dead on the mountain side. The dark figure appearing behind Elder Narit, her obvious death. Seanna cartwheeling over the railing. I added a new image to the hodgepodge—Aoife slung over the hairy beast’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Heat rose up the back of my neck. The fine hairs there stood on end.
Somewhere outside the rage that built inside me, I heard the crunch of the beasts moving further into the clearing. I knew I had only a few more moments. To do what? I wasn’t exactly sure what would happen, or if anything would happen at all. There was the possibility of passing out again, but I didn’t see any other way out of that circle. There was no way I’d let them hurt Aoife and letting them carry me off for whatever reason was out of the question.
I pushed on that anger and fear. I squeezed it under a thumb, feeling the pressure build within me. Those images flashed in my head like a video on fast forward.
“Gaige?” Aoife’s voice slipped through the cracks in my consciousness. It was sharp with warning.
A tremble ran through me, though I couldn’t tell if it was the power building or Aoife’s empathy leaking her fear. Maybe it was my own fear. I don’t know, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I opened my eyes. A beast loomed over me only a few feet in front of us. His gray fur shimmered in the morning light peeking over the horizon. His beady, black eyes glittered with mirth. He had me. His overlarge fingers reached for me, inches away. I let go of the energy inside, pushing forward in what I thought was a forward motion. A wave of power blew out from me in a circle like a shockwave from a bomb.
The balataur in front of us lifted off his feet and flew back to disappear in the tall grass. I spun my head around in time to see the other beasts sharing the same fate. It was a bad move. Darkness rushed in from the edges of my vision, threating to overtake me. I felt my feet shift as I staggered. I was lucky Aoife had her arms around me. She held me upright long enough for me to steady myself.
“Whoa,” she breathed. “What was that?”
“Run.” My voice sounded hoarse like I had just yelled for the past few hours.
“Where?”
“Just run.”
She let go of me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me from the clearing. I let her lead. Putting one foot in front of the other without tripping myself took more concentration than I could afford. I had nothing left to figure out where we were running. We pushed blindly through the grass without a real sense of direction. I had no idea where we’d run, anyway. We just had to run.
Somewhere in the back of my fuzzy mind, I registered grunts and yells in a language I didn’t recognize. Thumps and crashing signaled the beasts’ pursuit. They recovered quicker than I thought they would. I guess having a few of them knocked out would have been too much to hope for. The sounds coming from behind us filled the morning air from all around us. They were coming after us in full force. That wasn’t good. There was no way I could pull off another trick like back in the circle. Not only did I risk passing out, but I didn’t feel like I could call up the power again. I felt empty inside. Only Aoife’s hand pulling mine kept me going. I had to concentrate on her hand squeezing my fingers to the point of pain to keep from passing out.
The grunting and crashing grew closer. Aoife cursed and stopped. I ran into her. We tumbled to ground. I landed on Aoife’s back. Her breath left her lungs with a small grunt. A hooved foot appeared from the grass in front of us. I looked up to see a balataur, one muscled arm holding a massive ax above its head. The sharp weapon whistled through the air where Aoife and I had been moments before. A squeal cut the air, something stepped on my leg, and a balataur crashed to the ground beside us. I glanced at it. It clutched at a bloody gash across its hairy chest. Its breathing came quick and shallow.
I rolled off Aoife’s back. I didn’t know what I was going to do about the ax-wielding balataur, probably something stupid, but I had to do something. Maybe I could catch it off guard with a well-placed shoulder to the knee. Before I could put the thought into motion, the beast stomped past us and disappeared into the grass.
That was odd, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. That particular stance didn’t work out so well for the Trojans, but I was willing to pull that horse in and dance around it like an Irish river dancer.
Aoife pushed herself to her hands and knees, wheezing for breath.
I put a hand on her back. “Are you okay?”
I had seen more than a few people get the breath knocked out of them on the football field and there wasn’t anything to do to help but wait for their lungs to start working properly again. Still, I felt a rush of panic as I watched her g
asp. I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until she caught hers with a short gasp and then a long, wheezing intake of air.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I tried to avoid landing on you but couldn’t.”
She waved off the apology. “Where did it go?” she gasped.
“Back that way.” I pointed. Somewhere off in the grass, we heard the sound of metal crashing against metal. “What in the world is going on?”
Clashing metal rang out twice more before a high-pitched squeal ended the sounds of battle. I glanced at the balataur lying beside us. It no longer moved. Its black eyes stared into nothing. My eyes traveled to the gaping wound along its chest. It was the first time I’d seen anything like that outside the fake wounds in movies. It made me sick to look at, but I couldn’t turn away. It was like the image burned itself into my mind. Flaps of skin hung open with fur sticking out from it. Strains of muscle shown through the wound and blood trickled from the corners of the gash. I fought a wave of nausea as my stomach did flips in my gut.
I tore my eyes from the gore and they landed on the leather belt wrapped around his waist. A long dagger hung by a knot in its sheath. The beast really had been intent on taking me alive. Not that it needed a weapon like that if it did decide to kill me. I had no doubt whatsoever it could have pushed me to the ground and crushed my head with one stomp of its massive hoof.
“What are you doing?” Aoife asked.
I glanced at her. She was looking at my hand. I was surprised to find it reaching for the long dagger at the dead balataur’s waist. I hadn’t realized I was going for it. “I’m tired of my life…our lives being in danger with empty hands.”
“Do you even know how to use that thing?”
“Yeah. I swing it at whatever is threatening me.”
“And hope you don’t cut off your own fingers in the process.”
I looked at the wickedly long blade. “Knowing my luck, I’d take off my whole hand.” I reached for the knot that held the rope at the beast’s waist but fell still when grass rustled off to our left. I dropped my voice. “Help me get it off.”
The Gatekeeper Trilogy Page 23
