The Gatekeeper Trilogy

by Scott Ferrell

  *

  I must have fallen asleep. The cab rattled. The thump of my head against the window woke me. “Why are we slowing?”

  The driver said something.

  “Huh?”

  “We’re here.” Seanna leaned forward one last time and dumped a handful of money into the front seat. “200 pounds plus fair.”

  I tried to see what the meter read, but she pushed me out the door before I could. “Wait, where did you get that kind of money? In pounds, no less.”

  “Mr. Minor,” she said like that answered everything.

  No way a retired dentist had that kind of money to just toss around. He was the one who paid for our flight here. That had to be a lot of money since it was a last-minute flight.

  “Jae, would you get our stuff out of the boot?” Seanna said.

  “Huh?” he replied.

  “It’s over there,” she said to me.

  She pointed at an old shack. Even in the dark, I could see it was run down. It leaned so far to the left, I wondered how it managed to stay up right.

  “The gateway?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t feel anything,” I said.

  “Of course not.”

  Of course not . Even if I still had my abilities, it wasn’t my gateway. I shouldn’t feel anything. I knew nobody else could detect my gateway when it existed, why would I be any different with this one?

  “So, is it open? Do we just go through?”

  “No. Of course it’s not left open,” Seanna said. “Leaving one open would just invite another event like what happened at yours.”

  “Event? You say that like it was something that happened a hundred years ago.”

  “It seems like it did happen that long ago,” she said softly.

  “Right, I’m off!” The cabby didn’t wait for a response before climbing back in his car and peeling off with a wide yawn.

  Jae stood by our backpacks on the ground. “I still don’t see any boots.”

  “It’s ‘bout time y’all showed up!”

  I spun at the new voice. I man walked around the side of the shack. He carried a bright flashlight that nearly blinded me and made it impossible to see him clearly.

  “You’re not English.” I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

  “We got us a smart one here,” the man said. “Y’all didn’t say I’d be working with a genius.”

  “That is something he’s never been accused of,” Seanna said.

  “No, sir.” The man lowered the light to the ground. “Southern born and raised in Georgia. Just found me a little Welsh lady, oh ten years back. Brought me to jolly ole England, but I recon I’d follow her to Timbuktu if I hadda.”

  “We haven’t much time, Daniel.” Seanna spoke over the last part of the man’s sentence, apparently impatient with his slow drawl. “Is everything in order?”

  “Sure ‘nuff, ma’am. Supplies and everything y’all asked for is ready and waitin’ in the shed. You sure you don’t want to wait around a bit and rest?”

  “Time is already short.” Seanna spoke over him again.

  She brushed passed him, heading for the run-down shack Daniel considered a shed. He spun his light around to illuminate the place. What little of the actual structure that could be seen through the overgrown vines and bushes looked old enough to date the place back to the Viking invasions.

  “That one’s a little wound up, ain’t she?”

  “You have no idea,” I said.

  “Bless her heart.”

  I took my pack from Jae and followed Seanna into the shack. A single dim bulb hanging by a wire from the ceiling lit the room just enough to make out the black outline of the gateway along the far wall. I stared at it. I thought maybe I should feel its pull. An urge to go through it. But there was nothing besides a lingering fear of what lie on the other side. That world I swore I’d never step foot on again.

  “Well, there’s the supplies y’all asked for.” Daniel pointed toward a small bag sitting by the wall. “Food and what not for your friend here. Mostly jerky and some canned stuff that won’t go bad.”

  “I remembered your dislike of the food over there last time,” Seanna said like I should be impressed and appreciative.

  I wasn’t. Still, I knelt by the bag and shifted some of the contents into my backpack.

  “Right! To the other side then?” Jae said too loudly for the small room. “I’m quite tired of this form. I think I’m becoming odorous just here under the arms.”

  “That you are,” Daniel agreed with a wrinkled nose.

  Seanna approached the Gatekeeper and me. She held out a small section of stick to each of us. “These are connected through magic. When you’re ready to come back through, Gaige, just break your end. Daniel’s will break as well and light up. He’ll open the gateway for you.”

  I looked from the ordinary looking stick to Daniel. Somewhere in the back of my mind, my instincts were telling to not trust either of them. It had to be a trap. She was going to make me look silly with a stick she picked up somewhere.

  I ignored that little voice in my head. I didn’t have a choice. If they got me to Alisundi, that’s all I needed. Once I found Aoife, I’d figure out how to get home then.

  I nodded.

  “Okay,” Daniel said. “Now y’all got that all sorted out, in you go. Don’t want to be leaving this bad boy open much longer.”

  Jae and Seanna disappeared into the black inkiness. I was kind of surprised they didn’t make me go first. I could cut and run right now, but apparently Seanna trusted my desire to fine Aoife enough to know I’d follow.

  She was right.

  I stepped to the dark gateway, resisting the urge to look back at the Gatekeeper. No weakness. Be strong for Aoife. Take whatever was on the other side headlong for her sake. I inhaled sharply and stepped forward. Like jumping into a cold pool to get it over with, I entered the gateway to Alisundi.

  Part Two

  Alisundi

  7

  Strange Gateways

  Gaige Porter was aware of his entire being flying apart. His particles—down to a quantum level — tore apart and dispersed throughout the universe. There was no feeling of movement, only the sensations of being everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

  Yet, it all felt wrong. He tried to merge with the universe, but it rejected him. The universe once knew him. He was once one with it, but now he was different. He was an outsider. An intruder. Someone you lost the right to travel among the stars. To squeeze through black holes and come out somewhere else. The universe—much like a sentient being—once knew Gaige. Now, Gaige was just a nuisance.

  Like a wadded ball of paper, the universe gathered Gaige together and flung him through the destination gateway, glad to be rid of him.

  I stumbled. My feet felt like somebody else’s. They just didn’t seem to want to work. I pitched forward as they contacted solid ground and just managed to catch myself from falling face first.

  My first time through a gateway was disorienting, but I was ready for it when I went back through to Earth. This time, however, was different. My head spun. My ears rang. My muscles twitched like I had electrodes attached to various parts of my body. Everything blurred into shapeless masses whirling around me.

  I turned my head—or at least I thought I had—and threw up the meat pasty I grabbed on the way out of the airport. Once it was all gone, my stomach kept trying to expel everything. I think I even threw up all the Cocoa Pebbles I ate as a kid.

  Once I was done retching, my brain started to clear. The swirling around my head slowed. Sounds penetrated the ringing in my ears. I looked up to see a large figure bury an axe into a tree six foot away. Not that unusual of sight unless the tree screeched in pain. It did.

  I scrambled back away from the sight, only to bump into something large and hairy. I turned to come face to face with a dead cow. Its black eyes were open but stared blankly toward the sky. Frothy blood lined its lips.
<
br />   I pushed away from the dead animal and dry heaved, my gut muscles seizing.

  “Gaige!” Seanna hooked a hand under my arm and pulled me to shaky feet. “We have to get out of here.”

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Balataurs,” she said.

  That cleared up my head. Like a rubber band, my vision snapped into focus. Balataurs. Big, ugly cows that look a lot like minotaurs. Yeah, the creature from Greek myth. I wouldn’t dare compare them to the actual minotaurs, though. I met one once and he’d probably beat me senseless if I did.

  “How did they know we’d be coming through this gateway?” She muttered to herself and then pulled on my arm. “We need to go.”

  “Go where?”

  “Away from here.”

  Here was a thinly populated forest. The trees were spaced far apart, letting in enough sunlight to mess with my vision. There was such a huge contrast between light and shadows that I had a hard time focusing on one thing. Here and there, shapes moved between dark and light, but I couldn’t make them out enough to tell what they were.

  “The Ashling clan of this forest is fighting the Balataur, but they will not hold out for long,” Seanna went on. “The gateway is closed and that was their main concern.”

  “Since when do they care about the gateways?”

  “Now is not the time.” She tugged on my arm again. “Come on.”

  We weaved in and out of the trees. I caught only glimpses of the fighting. It was nothing more than blurred shadows converging on each other for a few moments before dissipating after a grunt or screech. I couldn’t tell who was doing the killing and who was doing the dying.

  We skidded to a stop as a Balataur stepped in our path. It was huge with dark gray fur, spotted brown. It had horns with a two-foot span between the tips and held a curved sword as long as my leg.

  I had faced these things down the last time I was on Alisundi. I had no idea how I managed to survive. It seemed like pure luck more than anything. This time, however, I wasn’t so defenseless. I stepped around Seanna to put myself between her and the beast.

  The creature blinked, snorted a laugh, and raised his sword.

  I second guessed bravado. What good would a year of martial arts training do against that thing?

  The sword tip whistled through the air in a diagonal arch. I leaned and twisted to the side. The blade missed, but not by much. I snap-kicked the Balataur’s hand as it went by.

  Not to brag or anything, but I had a pretty killer snap kick. I’d been breaking boards for months now, but the kick didn’t faze it one little bit. He pulled his hand back, still clutching the sword, and stood up straight. His large, beady eyes rolled to glare down at me.

  “Uh, sorry about that,” I said.

  “Gaige.” Seanna held something over my shoulder.

  I took it and risked a glance as I stepped back from the Balataur. It was a black cylinder about seven inches long. “What is—Oh, wait.”

  I flicked my arm down and it snapped open, extending to about two feet. I wondered how Seanna managed to get the personal protection device through security. “This will do.”

  The Balataur sneered at my puny weapon and pulled the sword back to take another swing. I lashed out and caught him on the side of the head. I would never get enough strength behind a single blow to do any real damage, but I was sure he would feel multiple hits in the same areas. With my back stroke, I struck him across the side just at the bottom of the ribs, then alongside the head again.

  I went through this cycle about six times fast enough to keep him off balance enough that he never got a chance to swing his sword. He stumbled back to get out of my reach.

  I should have pushed my advantage, but I needed the moment to catch my breath. “Had enough.”

  He lowered the weapon to his side. “Puny boy. I’ll grind your bones to a paste with my teeth.”

  The image of him regurgitating bits of me to chew again like cud flashed through my mind. “Not if you don’t have any teeth.”

  I jumped forward and feigned a backhand strike. At least last moment, just as he was flinching from the strike, I reversed my swing. I caught him on his fat snout. His head jerked to the side and bits of bloody teeth flew from his mouth.

  I pressed the advantage. I stepped in close and snap-kicked the side of his knee. It buckled and he stumbled. I struck the crown of his head with the weapon. I twirled around to stand behind him and brought the heavy metal rod down on his trapezius. His hand twitched open and he dropped the sword.

  I lifted my arm to strike the back of his head, but never got the chance. His back exploded, spraying blood all over me.

  I stepped back and blinked as the Balataur dropped to his knees and toppled to the side.

  An Ashling stood over the beast. He yanked a slice of wood from the beast and wiped it on the Balataurs fur to clean it. The wood was about four feet long, shaped similar to a sword, and polished to a wickedly sharp wooden blade.

  The Ashling was tall and thin. He had the barky skin of all Ashlings, but his was blacker than I had met before. He had his vine-like hair tied to the back of his long head.

  “Nashashir ‘Oshir ,” the Ashling said. “This way. We have a prepared travelway for you and your betrothed.”

  I stared at the Balataur lying on the ground. Bloody froth bubbled from its snout with less frequency. It wasn’t dead yet, but close. “It’s not dead,” I said.

  I don’t know my intention of bringing it up, but the Ashling looked from me to the beast. He slid the wooden sword into the Balataur throat and back out, wiping it clean once again. He looked back to me and nodded.

  I don’t think that was what I had intended. I swallowed back a lump that had crawled up from my already queasy stomach.

  “Come on, Gaige,” Seanna said.

  “Yeah, okay.” I tore my eyes from the dead creature on the ground. “Speaking of betrothed, where is Jae?”

  “The Dashisherish ‘Osher went for the travelway as soon he came through the gateway and saw the fighting,” the Ashling said.

  “Shocker,” I muttered.

  “Show us,” Seanna said.

  The Ashling nodded. “We must hurry. My Sibelisher are returning to the trees and back into hiding. The remaining Balataur will be looking for you.”

  “Sibelisher ?” I asked.

  “Brothers of the Forest,” Seanna explained. “What our Ashling warriors call each other.”

  The Ashling was right. The sounds of fighting—distant as it was—diminished to a loud, frustrated grunt here and there. Even those grew quiet as we pushed further away from what fighting remained.

  “What did he call you?” I asked. “It sounded like your word for Ashling princess.”

  Seanna nodded. “Nashashir ‘Oshir . Ashling princess is an over simplified translation. Nasha is a form of daughter in my language and shir is forest. An Ashling princess is known as the Daughter of the Forest. ‘Oshir means another forest. So, I am the Daughter of the Forest, of another Forest.”

  “That’s a mouth full.”

  Seanna shrugged.

  “Wait, so we’re not in your forest? He’s not one of your, uh, people?”

  She shook her head. “No, this gateway opens far from my home forest. This is why we’re going to a travelway. It will take us home.”

  “Right. Okay.”

  I eyed the wooden sword that hung from the Ashling’s back. It wasn’t some practice sword made of wood I’d seen people use to spar at Master Ruperto’s studio. It was thick, polished, and the edge filed to a blade that could cut through, well, a Balataur’s tough skin with ease. In the short time I’d spend with Seanna’s clan, I never saw a sharp weapon other than the dagger she carried. They wielded blunted weapons like her dad used to attack the Balataur that came after me.

  My stomach tied itself into a knot at the thought. I had come so close to losing Aoife then. I risked my neck to save her, only to lose her anyway.

  No . I couldn’t
think that way. She wasn’t lost. That was why I was back on this hellhole world. I would get her back. I’d fight a hundred Balataur to get her back.

  “How did they know the gateway would be open?” I asked.

  “What?” Seanna said.

  “The gateway. Daniel said he opened it when we showed up. How did the Balataur know it would be open now?”

  “I used a signal stick like the one I gave you. This clan had the other end. I signaled them when we were preparing to come through.” Seanna shrugged. “The Balataur must have been hiding nearby.”

  It occurred to me that I never even saw the gateway. I’d been so disorientated when I came through that I didn’t think to look back. My gateway had come through a sheer rock face, but the land in this forest was flat. Not a rock bigger than my fist to be seen. I hoped I could find it again after I found Aoife.

  “Nashashir ‘Oshir speaks the truth,” the Ashling ahead of us said. “The Balataur came from everywhere as soon as the gateway opened. It is a puzzle that they were able to hide from us in our own forest. Deep, filthy magic, no doubt. We are here.”

  We stood in front of a tree that would have been impressive if I hadn’t seen the ones Seanna’s clan lived in a year ago. It was tall with branches that spread out everywhere. Its trunk was thick enough it would take three people to wrap their arms around to complete a circle. There was a dark hole in that trunk. That would be the travelway.

  “Where did Dashisherish ‘Osher go?” Seanna asked one of the four Ashlings that guarded the gateway.

  The Ashling’s barky face remained impassive. “He ran through the travelway. We tried to stop him. We thought it would be prudent to wait for the Nashashir ‘Oshir but he did not see it that way.”

  “Shocker,” I said again, remembering how Jae had cowered in a corner while a Balataur kidnapped Aoife.

  Seanna nodded. “Thank you for your permission to pass through the travelway. My clan and forest are in your debt.”

  The Ashling inclined his long head but said nothing.

  She grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the travelway. “Come on.”

  8

  Bugs in a vacuum

  Moving through the travelways seems like it should be similar to the gateway. It’s not. The gateways rip people apart cell by cell and transport them to another part of the universe. There’s no sense of movement, only the sensation of spreading out among the stars like petals tossed into the breeze then reassembled into a whole flower somewhere else.