Ghost of Doors (City of Doors)

by Jennifer Paetsch

  Pilgrim supposed that was true. Anything if it would get him out of here. “Yeah, sure. Le Ying,” Pilgrim answered, arching his head up gracefully. “Right?”

  The dog’s nose and several stray hairs appeared next through the grate. “What are you doing in here? Never had you pegged for a traitor.”

  “Two gargoyles caught me and dragged me in here. I guess they didn’t like me for some reason.”

  “Well, your boy stirred up some trouble with the Lady. Maybe it’s about that.”

  Pilgrim pawed at the ground. He didn’t know what the dog knew about their visit so he didn’t want to get into it. It was better to let the dog think he had nothing to do with any of it and to play up Marie as a common ally. Planting the seed that SUN might not be on the up and up was also probably worth it. “Listen, there’s a guy trying to kill that boy. I gotta get out and help him.”

  Le Ying cocked his head. “Help him kill your boy?”

  “No.” Pilgrim shook out his gray mane. “Help my boy not get killed.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere. What was his name…Wolfgang, right?” Pilgrim nodded. “Aha,” Le Ying barked, his fur exploding into a bush of fire. “I never forget a face.”

  “That’s his name.”

  “Yeah, whatever. Point is, mind like a steel trap. Let’s get you out of here.” The door to the gate flew open at the dog’s command, and Pilgrim trotted out of the tiny cell, eager to be free.

  “Thanks heaps.” Pilgrim shook out his mane as a shudder slithered down his spine—he was still underground and he hated it. “Listen, I gotta tell you, something’s really wrong here.”

  “Here?” Le Ying scouted around himself with eyes and nose.

  “With SUN.”

  Le Ying shushed him sharply and, with a couple of head-tilts, bade him to follow. They made their way into a dirty corridor, exposed wires in concrete and grimy looking oil stains on the walls and floors. “I know what you’re gonna say. Let’s just say I’ve seen some things…” The two fae trotted up some stairs and through another dank corridor before arriving to a passage that Pilgrim was familiar with. “I wanna talk to Marie about this. I’ll come with you if you’re planning on meeting up with her.”

  Pilgrim nodded. “Sure as summer if you see one of those two, you’ll see the other soon enough. I can find my boy, and Marie should be with him, or will show up soon.”

  Le Ying’s little feet danced on the concrete as the two worked their way out of the headquarters. He knew the base much better than Pilgrim and they traveled down passages that the horse had not been privy to. “Is he her boy, too?”

  “Sort of,” the horse admitted. He wasn’t exactly sure himself. Finally outside, he put his nose to the wind and breathed the fresh air deeply. Rearing up against the backdrop of buildings, the destrier raced around the wide patch of grass that lay not far away from the subway stairwell. It felt good to be out and free. A surge of energy flowed through him from his hooves to his heart, and he bent down to nudge the little dog who was not even as big as his head. “Climb on my back and we’ll find Wolfgang and Marie,” he said.

  Le Ying growled. “What?! You think I can’t keep up? Just try me, pal.” He began to puff smoke and flames around him in all directions with each word before searing the patch of grass like a grounded firework. “I’ll teach you a thing or two about racing!”

  Accepting the challenge with a whinny, Pilgrim dove into the street and pumped his legs as fast as they could go. He could tell where Wolfgang was, and it had nothing to do with his soul or Wolfgang’s scent. It was a gift of sight that showed him more things than most fae could ever know, or want to know. The gift was not common, and, as far as he knew, no other fae had it—no fae untouched by demon blood, that is. Le Ying, to his credit, kept up the pace and flew like a comet at Pilgrim’s side until they reached the Farseeing Tower and the part of Wolfgang that Pilgrim knew he would find there. Pilgrim slowed and trotted around the tower, his eyes and ears alert and ready to match the vision in his head but was disturbed by the shuffling motion of figures in the distance. “Do you see that?” the great horse asked. Le Ying, not far behind him, put his nose up in the air.

  “It’s too far,” the dog admitted. “But I smell death.”

  “So it’s not just me.” He slowed his pace even more until he was carefully walking down the street to an alley and trying desperately all the while to make as little noise as possible. The first zombie to pass by startled him so much that he nearly trampled Le Ying under his half-bowling-ball sized hooves and, after seeing the sea of bodies crowding deep down the alleyway, was relieved that they did not attack. If anything, they had a bluish pallor and the symbol of SUN—a circle around a dot—on their faces, implying to Pilgrim that they were under SUN’s control. And the bluish cast to the walls came from the doors now flushed with a blue glamour, not the sky which was actually cloudy and darkening moment to moment.

  Le Ying pinned his ears back. “What does this mean?”

  Pilgrim copied him. “SUN,” he said, “owns the city.”

  “We do?” The city around them was undeniable evidence for Pilgrim’s words, but both of them knew that this should be impossible. All that talk about how desperately they needed members, and now, the faction had taken control? Le Ying voiced the question they both were asking: “How?”

  Pilgrim returned to the task of finding Wolfgang and finally reconciled his vision with what he saw around him. Not far from the Farseeing Tower, in the back room of some sort of office or store, stood Wolfgang’s body, purposefully trapped there behind a locked door that Pilgrim was forced to kick down. “I’da never guessed he was here. Hey, hey, whelp,” Le Ying barked. “You okay?” The dull glare in his eyes answered the question. “Oh, man,” the dog said. “They got him, too.”

  Pilgrim guessed that the other zombies were human once, too, and it didn’t make sense. Why were they stealing their souls if they were the ones SUN had sworn to protect? Wasn’t that like killing them? Le Ying must have had the same thoughts, because he added, “I don’t understand something. I thought we were supposed to help humans? I thought that was the point.”

  “So did I,” Pilgrim said, and crouched down low so that the ghost of Wolfgang Schäfer could climb on his back. “Help him up, can you, Le Ying?”

  “I’ll try.” The little dog nipped at the lifeless body until it responded, and herded it onto Pilgrim’s back as he’d been asked. “He moves as well as the others. Just doesn’t seem very motivated.”

  “I can’t blame him,” Pilgrim said, standing. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Chief. I promise I’ll keep you safe and we’ll find Marie. Maybe she knows what happened.”

  “Do you know where she is?”

  “Not yet,” Pilgrim replied. “I’m more worried about who did this to him and why.”

  “The same reason they did it to everyone else,” The little dog reasoned.

  Pilgrim thought that made sense. There was some way to take over the city using the humans souls, and SUN did it. “Could it be reversed?” he asked. “Or is everyone stuck like this?”

  Growling, Le Ying trotted back out into the street and Pilgrim followed him. “I can’t believe we’ve been tricked.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Tricked into helping them. I dunno about you, but I devoted my life to SUN to help humans, to protect them, and I know lots of others who did, too. So now, how are we gonna know who is fighting for SUN or against them if we’re all in the same faction?”

  Pilgrim stomped a foot, careful not to rock Wolfgang so much that he fell off. “Simple. We make a new faction.”

  “How?”

  “We start it the same way SUN was started. With enough fae or monsters occupying a block that it changes the glamour on a door.”

  “That could take days. Weeks. We need something until then. Like, a sign or a symbol we can paint on ourselves.”

  “How about a star?”

  “Hmm.” The little
dog puffed out some smoke through his thin dog lips and thought about it. “I like it.” He blew out a 5 pointed shape in the smoke which floated up into a ring above his head. “Like this?”

  Pilgrim nodded. “Good enough.”

  “Now we’ve got to write it on ourselves with something.” Running around in a circle, the little dog became overwhelmed with his own excited thoughts. “You stay here with your boy. I’m going to see who’s on our side, rally some troops. We’ll make up some kind of an armband or something to wear and I’ll pass them around. Bring you back some. Don’t go anywhere.” Pilgrim figured it was as good idea as any as the dog flew off into the blue city like a shooting star in the night sky. It made sense to know who their friends were, which was the point of belonging to a faction in the first place. If only Wolfgang would come back. He could see him, see his soul wandering in that other land in another body on another horse. His demon vision was never wrong. He wished it worked both ways so that he could tell Wolfgang where he was and what he was doing, but this would have to do. In a short time, he would be back, and they could piece together what, if anything, they knew about this new war.

  Chapter 22

  THE HUNT RUSHED THROUGH THE streets of Doors like a vicious river, a flood of angry claws and fangs stopping for nothing and no one. As he and Marie approached the Farseeing Tower, Wolfgang was reminded of what happened to his body, and where his doppelganger might have left it. “We should check around here,” he told her. “My body might be nearby…dead or alive.”

  Johnny swooped down from his vantage point above the city. “I see Dapplegrim around the next corner,” he said. “But the sky is choked with elements sworn to SUN. I can’t make a move up there.” He hovered just above the sidewalk, the paved stones slick with rain and a fog that kept rolling in and out from the river.

  Tears fell from Wolfgang’s borrowed eyes at the sight of the great, gray horse. “There you are, Chief,” said Pilgrim, his tail swishing behind him against the wind. “I thought you might get stuck like this for good.”

  Wolfgang clumsily dismounted and hobbled from the undead steed that had served him and his father well. His arms fell upon Pilgrim and he pulled the great horse to him in a massive hug. Then he helped his body down from the broad back, his soul spontaneously drawn to it. The transfer of life from body to body happened almost at the exact moment that hand gripped hand, skin touched skin. There was no magic to it. It felt completely natural to want to be in his own skin, to dwell in the body he was born to, and he could not fight it any longer. His soul slipped away, back into its rightful form, a drop of water filling a shell. That left his father’s body on its own once more, but it did not complain and returned to mount the horse that had brought him here.

  “Where’s Vogelfang?” Wolfgang asked Pilgrim about Aar, the ancient weapon.

  “You didn’t have it when I found you.”

  “My doppelganger,” Wolfgang said to Marie. “He must have it.” That was a disturbing thought, to fight through the city without his weapon, but he would have to make do. Perhaps something would turn up along the way, and in the meantime, he still had the formidable knife that False Markus had given him. Wolfgang turned to watch his father, a tall shadow in the darkening city, and the undulating of his cloak reminded him of Leonie’s raven hair. “We’ve got to find Leonie. We can’t forget about her. She doesn’t deserve this, either.”

  “She’s probably trapped in a door just like every other human,” Marie said. “How will we find her?”

  “I can find her,” Pilgrim said. Wolfgang had no reason to doubt him. Pilgrim had always found anyone before with no trouble whatsoever.

  “Good. Then you go with Pilgrim, Marie. I’ll return to my father that which belongs to him.”

  The great horse tossed up his head and focused on something at the end of the street, something bright and fast approaching against the overcast city. “Look, Le Ying’s finally come back,” Pilgrim told the group. “He went to get some allies.”

  “Who?” Wolfgang asked.

  “The little foo dog,” Marie reminded him. “The one who took you to Lady Welt.”

  “Oh, him? He’s going to help us?”

  “He had a great idea,” Pilgrim said, “to wear a new symbol so we know who stands against SUN. It’s a star.”

  Wolfgang took a moment to think about this. A new symbol would be helpful. They would start a new faction, and anyone who kept the original tenets of SUN alive in their minds and actions could join. “That really is a great idea,” he said. “I guess we all belong to STAR now.”

  “You, Wolfgang? Join a faction?” Marie said. She looked so beautiful in the dimness, her eyes wide and glowing with a rush of adrenaline that only the war in Doors could give. He never wanted to take his eyes off her again.

  “I think my life depends on it,” he replied. “It may be impossible to be factionless after this war. I don’t think people will have any more patience for anyone riding the fence.”

  After leaping around Wolfgang, the little dog set down on the ground before him a bag full of clanking metal about as big as he was. “Good to see you again, whelp. Did the big guy tell you about his plan? To make a new faction? I brought some things to mark us with for now and I told as many people as I could. They’ll pass it on. And some are following me. They’re just down the street, coming to join us.”

  “I think it’s a great idea. We need a new faction to make our feelings known,” Wolfgang said. He searched through the bag and began passing out scraps of fabric and cans of paint to make the symbols. They wouldn’t be as powerful as a brand or a tattoo, but it was all they had. They didn’t even have a faction color because they hadn’t yet claimed a door, but that didn’t matter. They were united in their desire to live in peace, and that was what mattered. After he and Marie decorated each other with arm bands, Wolfgang took a can of spray paint and reached up on the nearest wall as high as he could to mark it with a five pointed star and the words:

  STill ARound

  “We’re not going anywhere,” he told the group. “We have as much right to Doors as anyone.” He started to understand why people marked the buildings and subway cars in that other world. It was a way of doing what he just did, a way of saying that he was here and that he belonged, that this was his part of the city. He had never felt as if he belonged in Doors before, but as he looked at the people gathering around him, the feeling swelled within him that they were a part of him, and he was a part of them. Their show of support told him they wanted him here. And when Lorelei came to him—False Lorelei, for the real Lorelei was still trapped in a door with his father’s soul—and took his hand from her place in the crowd, he finally understood what she and False Markus had been trying to tell him all these years: They needed him because they loved him. She was a part of STAR now, as her crude armband showed.

  “Your father would be so proud of you,” False Lorelei said.

  “You mean, the man pretending to be my father,” he said as gently as he could manage. “I know that you and the man who raised me are not who you say you are.” She held his hand even tighter as if afraid he might try to walk away before she could make her peace with him.

  “I’m sorry. I know if he could be here he would say he’s sorry, too. Your doppelganger hurt him pretty badly and he needs some time to heal.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Safe. For now. I’m sure he’ll join us when he can.” Wolfgang could understand why she didn’t want to say more. No doubt SUN would not be happy to lose their best scientist. They might decide to kidnap him—or worse—if they knew where to find him, and here in the middle of the city, any open discussion could easily be overheard by anyone. “We never wanted to hurt you. We did what was asked of us.”

  “By SUN.”

  “By Lady Welt. We thought it was the right thing to do. And we love you very much, like you were our own son.”

  “Can I ask what your real names are?”

  “My nam
e is Adelaide,” she said. “And your father is Victor.”

  Wolfgang nodded. “Thank you,” he said.

  “What for?”

  “Everything.” And he hugged the woman he had called Mother all his life. “Can I still call you Mom?”

  Adelaide hugged him back as if she planned to never let him go. “I would like that very much.” But the situation demanded that she let go, and she did so slowly, stroking his hair and giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Good luck. Please, be careful out there.”

  Wolfgang addressed the ready crowd with hope in his voice for the first time in years. “If I may be so bold, I have a plan,” he said. “Let’s be honest: We can’t take a door. Yet. There are too few of us and too much to do before we try anything like that.” He climbed upon Pilgrim’s back to be better seen and heard. “But we can free the souls trapped in the doors, and maybe convince them to join us. Maybe the fae they are trapped with will join us, too.” He pointed to the patiently waiting elegant monster on top of the nightmare steed. “There is my father’s widerganger. I’m going with him to free his soul so he can live again as a human was meant to live, safe with his family. Take as many wandering zombies as you can and put one inside each of the doors that SUN took. The door should reject them and free them both, the human and the trapped fae.”

  “What if we put them in the wrong door?” Le Ying asked.

  “Once they come back to Doors, the souls should sort themselves out,” Wolfgang said. “Even if they’re in the wrong bodies.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I don’t know,” Wolfgang admitted. “But mine did.”

  The fae talked among themselves briefly, splitting themselves up into small groups to better complete the tasks they had been assigned. “I’ll come with you,” Johnny said to Wolfgang. “If Marie goes with Dapplegrim, you’ll need a partner. It’s not a good idea for you to do this alone.”

  Slipping off of Pilgrim, Wolfgang nodded his consent. “Father,” he said after he regaining his footing. “Let’s go save your soul.”