The Gatekeeper Trilogy

by Scott Ferrell

  That was definitely Aoife.

  Then, like a drop of the leading dish soap brand in a sink full of greasy water, the darkness clouding my eyes receded to reveal both girls leaning over me. It could have been either one of them talking, but I was still sure it was Aoife. Only she could make an insult sound so eloquent.

  “Did it work?” I asked.

  “A little too well,” Seanna said over the sound of the rising alarm. “That was a stupid thing to do.”

  “It worked, though, right?”

  “Can you stand?” she asked. “We won’t be left alone for long.”

  “And I don’t think you can do anymore of those brain bombs or your head might explode,” Aoife put in.

  “Brain bombs?” With their help, I rose to a sitting position and saw exactly why she had given my trick that nickname.

  The surrounding area—from the opening we came out of and down the hill—looked like a small bomb had detonated. Some of the smaller bushes and trees had been ripped out of the ground while others with stronger roots were stripped of leaves and some bark. The men lay scattered around, only a couple groaned, rolling slowly on the ground. The others lay still. I tried to not wonder if they were dead or not. I hoped not but couldn’t give it much thought considering they worked for a man who spent several hours torturing me last night.

  “We need to go if you can stand,” Seanna said.

  I nodded, took the girls’ hands, and climbed to wobbly feet.

  ***

  I resisted the urge to look back at Daresh’s keep, the Circle of Atlas, as we scampered down the large hill as quick as we could manage without breaking an ankle. Instead of the leisurely, winding trail we climbed on the way to the top, we took a more direct route down the side of the rise. We had to slow when we came to the steeper slopes so we didn’t lose our footing and go bouncing and rolling all the way to the bottom like in a cartoon.

  I ignored the bits of pain that flicked around different parts of my body as I slipped down one particularly steep hill, sliding a few feet on my backside. Out of all those spots of pain, my shin was the worst. The deep scrape burned and threatened to cause my muscles to stiffen. Not to mention the fact that my foot slid in the blood the seeped from the wound into my shoe.

  We crashed through garden after garden during our escape. Nobody was in them, but Seanna didn’t seem happy when we pushed none too gently through bushes. Aoife and I trampled delicate looking flowers and pushed over saplings that got in the way, but I didn’t feel the need to be careful. Sacrificing vegetation was well worth our lives in my opinion.

  The alarms continued to blare as we made a beeline for the city of Delicia. It only took a few minutes before we jumped over a short retaining wall and pushed through a final row of bushes to find ourselves standing behind the ten-foot wall that ringed the bottom of the hill.

  I approached it, running a hand over the surface. It was rough, but not enough to find foot and hand holds. “We need to find an opening.”

  “They’ll be closed and guarded.” Seanna shook her head. “We need to get over it.”

  I looked up at the top of the wall. Ten feet didn’t seem too tall until faced with getting to the top of it. “I could lift you both up,” I suggested. “I’m pretty sure I could jump and pull myself up.”

  “If you hadn’t pulled that little stunt back there, I would have tried to guide you through using your ability to lift us all up,” Seanna said.

  “I could do that?” I asked.

  “As it is,” she went on, ignoring my question, “we don’t need you flopping on the ground again.”

  “Hey. I did what I had to,” I said, indignant.

  “You went a little overboard.” She glanced sideways at me. “You could have killed yourself.”

  “Somebody’s coming,” Aoife said suddenly.

  We rushed back into the bushes and crouched, trying to blend in the best we could. Seanna made that task a little easier. A lot easier, actually. She knelt between us and grabbed our hands. Hers were soft. Too soft, like she was trying to overcompensate for what I felt back in the tunnels. Before I could think about it too much, warmth crept up my arm. I glanced at my hand in hers, surprised to find it changing colors. A light green crept up my arm, dark green streaks lacing into a leafy pattern. The camouflage raced up my arm, under my sleeve, and down my other arm. I leaned around her to see Aoife similarly colored. We held still as the soldiers neared.

  Aoife exhaled slowly, quietly, trying to level her breathing. The soldiers came into view. There were only four of them. That many seemed too intimidating on the way to the Circle of Atlas, but considering what we just went through, I was fairly certain we could take them. But, I didn’t want to push our luck. Seanna was right about using my ability, anyways. Just the thought of reaching into the well of power made me lightheaded.

  They moved slowly, peering around, tube-gun-thing in one hand, short swords in the other. As they came within a few feet of our hiding position, I began to think how stupid we were to trust a little magical camouflage to hide us. One looked right at me, our eyes met, my heart caught in my throat. I tensed. I bet if I bull-rushed him, I could take him down before he had a chance to react. I’d have to worry about the other three after that.

  Seanna squeezed my hand hard. I fought the urge to look down at her hand in mine. The message was clear, though. Be still.

  The man’s eyes slid by mine as they moved on down the path. I forced myself to relax.

  We waited a few long moments to make sure they had truly moved on before we bolted from our hiding place. As soon as Seanna let go of my hand, I felt the warmth leave my body. I looked down at my hands to see the green fading from them, returning to my normal skin color.

  We rushed the wall and Seanna turned to me. “Lift me up.”

  I laced my fingers together, forming a basket with my hands and knelt. Seanna placed a foot in them and I lifted, shocked at how little she weighed. I knew she was skinny, but she weighed next to nothing. She nimbly grabbed the top of the wall, pulling herself up to peek her head over. Seeing nothing on the other side, she disappeared over the wall.

  I formed the basket again for Aoife. She looked at my hands, the top of the wall, and back.

  “Come on, it’s easy. Like the climbing wall in gym,” I suggested.

  An eyebrow lifted. “You think I ever went over that thing?”

  Come to think of it, I don’t remember ever seeing her participate in gym class. She usually sat high in the bleachers, reading. When she bothered to come, that is.

  “Well, there’s not much choice now, is there?”

  She frowned at me and stepped forward, hesitated.

  “Hurry before more of them come by,” I said.

  She grabbed my shoulders and placed a foot in my hands. She bounced on the ball of her other foot and hopped awkwardly up, grabbing for the top of the wall. She immediately lost her balance. Her knee hit my face and I staggered into the wall. She placed a foot on my shoulder, using it to boost herself further up, struggling to pull herself up. At some point, she kicked me in the face, too. After a few long moments, she managed to get herself over the wall. She rolled over the top to the other side. I didn’t hear her cursing, so I figured she somehow accomplished getting down without falling.

  I stepped back from the wall. At only ten feet, I should be able to get up there. Basketball goals were at ten feet, and while I couldn’t manage to dunk a ball yet, I could touch the rim. I figured I wouldn’t have any problems if I jumped, using the wall for extra boost. I looked at the top. It seemed to grow taller.

  I thought about what Seanna had said. I should be able to use my power to lift myself over. What a sight that would be, I thought. Flying gracefully over the wall to land on the other side . I took a few more steps back, pushing against the bushes we had hid in.

  I gingerly tested my well of power. It made my head swim a little, but nothing too bad, so I pulled out some of the energy. I sucked in a breath a
nd exhaled, then took off. I covered the space in three strides and jumped, pushing off the ground with my power as I did.

  As soon as my feet left the ground, I knew I had terribly misjudged pretty much everything about that jump. The push of power sent me flying straight at the wall. I flailed my arms, grasping at the top of the wall before I crashed into it. That stunt earned me a few more bruises, but I managed to get a handhold on the top. I hung there for a moment, letting what I had just done sink in so I could get over it, feeling immensely grateful nobody was on that side of the wall to see it.

  I lifted myself up, swinging a leg over the top. I grabbed the other side of the wall and let myself down gently and took a quick inventory of bumps and bruises. I had somehow escaped further injury flinging myself into the wall.

  I turned to find the girls pushed against the wall. “Now what?”

  “Now we get out of Delicia,” Seanna said.

  I looked out over the city, which spread out impossibly before us. “Easier said than done?”

  “A lot harder with these sirens going off,” Aoife said.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Look.” She pointed down the streets.

  “What? They’re empty.”

  “Exactly,” she said.

  “Where is everybody?” I asked. It was like looking at a ghost town.

  “The sirens have driven everybody indoors,” Seanna said.

  “It would be a lot easier to get ourselves lost in a crowd,” Aoife went on.

  “Then what are we supposed to—”

  “There they are!” A large group of soldiers ran our way alongside the wall.

  We didn’t have to consult with each other on what to do. We took off, running as fast as we could through the city of Delicia.

  6

  FLIGHT THROUGH DELICIA

  I wanted to run faster. No matter how many random blind turns we took, we couldn’t put any more distance on Daresh’s soldiers. Seanna lead the way, but she kept slowing down to allow Aoife and me to catch up to her. I should have been able to easily keep up with her. I was one of the fastest players on my football team back home, but whatever strength I had left was disappearing in a hurry. My breathing was short, my legs felt like they each weighed a ton, and my shin burned.

  We could have made it to the city wall quicker if we followed the street straight down to it, but at the pace we were going, we would have been caught within a few blocks. We had to take turns to try to keep ahead of our pursuers. Our only hope was to cause them to hesitate at every turn. Maybe we might even lose them, though I didn’t put much hope in that happening.

  Seanna turned a corner onto another street heading down to the city walls. These streets made us more vulnerable than the perpendicular ones that ringed out from the Circle of Atlas, but we didn’t have a choice. We had to keep making our way toward those walls and possible escape beyond them.

  We ran two blocks before I risked a glance over my shoulder as we passed a cart selling some kind of flat bread. The group of soldiers pursuing us had grown to what looked like two dozen. And they were gaining on us. The faster soldiers in the bunch were only a block behind.

  Adrenaline kicked in and drowned out the pain in my shin and the numbness everywhere else. I picked up the pace, but it wouldn’t be enough. We couldn’t keep this up forever. Even if we did make it to the wall, then what? There’s nothing but miles of empty plain beyond it. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go. We could risk hiding in Sholto’s swamp, but it was a couple days away. We would never make it. What option did that leave us? What were we going to do when we made it outside the city? Could we even make it outside the city? There was no way to get past that thick wall that ringed the city. If somehow we did, we’d probably end up with arrows in the back.

  The adrenaline petered out. Hopelessness bullied its way back in, sapping my energy. I stumbled, turned an ankle on a loose cobblestone, and took a header to the ground. I rolled with the fall, but new pain flared to life on my right knee, palm, and shoulder. The lead pursuing soldier caught up to me. I pushed myself to my knees and reacted the only way I could. I brought my fist up between his legs as he loomed over me.

  Air rushed from between his lips in the form of a squeak. He stumbled back, clutching himself.

  The rest of the soldiers closed in soon after, but Seanna stepped between us. Uncertain, our pursuers hesitated long enough for the slight girl to throw out her hands in front of her, palms down. She clenched her fists and they erupted with a purple glow. She opened them and lowered them like she was closing a window. In the same motion, she jerked them up and over her head. The sidewalk erupted in a shower of stone as the cobblestone sidewalk exploded. Trees burst into view out of nowhere like a decade of growth happened in an instant. Their thick branch with sharp looking thorns formed a barrier between us and the soldiers.

  Seanna turned and grabbed me under the arm. “Hurry!”

  Aoife waited for us at a corner. We rounded it only to skid to a halt. A man stood there with empty hands raised, his palms out. “This way.” He motioned to a storefront that looked closed and boarded up. When we hesitated, he added, “If you want to get out of here alive, you will come with me.”

  “We can trust him,” Aoife said between trying to catch breaths.

  The man didn’t need any more vouching than Aoife and her golden eyes. He led us down a narrow alley to the right of the shop. The opening between it and a seamstress shop was a tight fit at only about two feet wide, forcing us to go single file. Seanna and Aoife followed behind him while I took up the rear.

  About half way down, he came to such an abrupt stop, Seanna nearly bumped into him. He glanced over our shoulders to make sure the soldiers hadn’t made it past the Ashling’s vegetation barrier before bracing his back against the closed shop’s wall. With the crunching sound of rock on rock, it gave way and swung open just enough to fit through.

  “Are you sure?” I asked Aoife.

  She nodded her affirmation.

  Seanna didn’t seem convinced. Her lips tightened, but she followed the man through the opening. Aoife and I pushed in after her. The man stood on the other side of the door and pushed when we were clear of it.

  “They went down this way,” a voice came down the alley just before the wall clicked into place, leaving us in total darkness.

  Silence fell on the room with the exception of our heavy breathing.

  Seanna’s blue light flared to life in her hands. We all blinked at the sudden light, but my eyes quickly adjusted. The room was small, barely big enough to fit all four of us. Aoife leaned against the far wall. I stood next to her with Seanna between us and our fortuitous savior. He squinted at Seanna’s magical light, a flash of annoyance crossing his face, but said nothing.

  “Who are you?” the Ashling demanded.

  “The person who just saved your life.” His low voice rasped like a rock singer growling a song.

  She glanced pointedly around at the small confines. “Saved our lives?”

  “Looks more like you just crammed us into a tight box,” Aoife said.

  “Better a tight box than out there, eh?” he said.

  “What are we supposed to do?” I asked him. “It’s not like we can stay in here until they forget about us. That’s not going to happen any time soon.”

  “Of course not.” The man squeezed past us to the wall Aoife leaned against. She glared at him for a moment before sliding out of the way. He pushed on a board and the door clicked open.

  “Go all my life without seeing a secret passage,” Aoife muttered, “and now I’m pretty sure I’ve had my fill of them.”

  The wall slid out to reveal another dark room. Both it and the room we just evacuated were made of the same rough cut tan stone as the rest of Delicia. It was all so bland compared to the lavishly decorated innards of the Circle of Atlas. Though, given the choice, I’d prefer bland over that place any day.

  The man closed the trap door behind us and once a
gain moved to the far wall, but instead of opening another door, he knocked on the wall. A few moments later, it slid open as if on its own will.

  We filed through that door way to find a short man standing on the other side. Aoife glanced at me with golden eyes, nodding slightly. I relaxed a little. It was funny how quickly I came to trust her ability to read people. She hadn’t been wrong yet when she was able to read a person. When she couldn’t, it was because she was blocked through magical means like with Seanna.

  The short man was just that, short. He barely came to my chest, but his torso was as thick as a barrel, his arms massive tree limbs. He was completely bald and sported more than one scar on his tight, weather-worn face. He looked up at us as we passed, his face was as expressionless as the bland stone walls. He eyed Seanna’s ball of light as she passed.

  He stayed behind as we walked down a long, unadorned hall. It sloped down as we took right turn after right turn. I got the impression we were going underground, staying beneath the closed shop above. Didn’t anybody stay above ground in this city?

  A sudden wave of heat warmed my cheeks and a sheen of sweat broke out on my forehead. It took a second to realize it wasn’t the air that had heated up. It came from within me. A wave of dizziness lapped across me. The walls narrowed in until I thought they might trap me there.

  “What is this place?” I croaked.

  “Are you okay?” Aoife asked, glancing over her shoulder.

  “You will see in a few moments,” the man answered.

  I nodded at Aoife and swallowed. She seemed unaffected by the hallway. It had to be all in my head. I had to get ahold of myself. Although this underground tunnel wasn’t dank and wet like in the Circle of Atlas’ dungeons, the similarities were too close.

  “Who are you?” Seanna asked again.

  He remained quiet. Either we followed him or we didn’t. I could tell it didn’t matter either way to him. At least, that was the impression he wanted us to have. Why else would he have brought us here if he didn’t care if we were caught or not? I was glad for the thought to ponder and occupy my mind. Anything was better than the memories of that cell and torture room.