by Abby Smith
I felt an overwhelming combination of anger, frustration, and annoyance that I couldn’t quite put into words, which annoyed me further because I really wanted to yell at somebody. Had anyone planned on asking me my opinion on any of this, ever?
“Well!” Mrs. Widgit said brightly, as she arranged cookies on a plate. “I think this has all worked out wonderfully then! Allie found her own way to Vala, Vala has agreed to initiate her as the next Gatekeeper, and, assuming she passes her trial, Allie can take Pettikin home and everything can continue as it was meant to be. I’m so glad we could all come together like this. Cookie anyone?” She placed a plate of cookies in the middle of the kitchen table.
Vala put a hand on Dad’s shoulder.
“Dan, I know you meant well, and May was fond of you, so I never interfered with her agreement with you. But it was never your decision to make. Like it or not, she doesn’t belong to you. Whether it’s now or when she’s eighteen, the decision is Allie’s and Allie’s alone. None of us can make it for her, not even me.”
He spoke with a quiet intensity that had none of his youthful persona. He was very much a Guardian of the Universe at that moment.
My father nodded and gazed down at the table.
Vala dropped his hand, and his lips twisted into a playful smile.
“So what’s it gonna be, Al?”
My heart started pounding and my throat felt dry. “I…” I started, but my voice sounded rough. I cleared my throat.
“I mean we’re just asking you to make a major, life-altering decision, with ramifications for the rest of your existence in the universe, right here, right now, in this kitchen. Don’t worry, take your time.”
Vala’s eyes were full of humor, like we were sharing some inside joke. Waves of happiness rolled off of him and washed over me. I felt the knot in my stomach relaxing and was tempted to smile back at him, but that reaction confused me so I looked away from him quickly. Could it be that easy?
Dad leaned toward me.
“But Allie, think seriously for a moment, now, while you still have a chance. I know that it all sounds tempting—easy, even—but what you’re signing up for is anything but easy. It’s a lifelong commitment. It means you will be doing the work of the Guardians for…well at least for the rest of your lifetime here. Once you agree to this, any plans you might have had for your life will be out the window. This will be the one thing you are most committed to. It might be hard for you to understand what that means now.” His voice was earnest.
Vala folded his arms and closed his eyes. The air around him turned golden, and he seemed far away from any of us in the kitchen.
I thought about all the vague plans I had for my life, all of the things I had ever imagined myself doing in twenty years—wearing a business suit in an office, being a veterinarian, or a musician—no one vision had ever stood out to me as the right one. There was nothing I particularly wanted to do more than anything else in the world. I had plenty of ridiculous daydreams that mostly centered around me being married to Brett Logan and living in some farmhouse in Vermont—a replica of my parents’ house and life. How much did I want all of that? I cast my mind forward to what it would be like if I became a Gatekeeper, trying to imagine where I would be, and what I would be doing. There was nothing, just a blankness, a feeling like a question mark. Dad was right. I couldn’t even imagine it.
A soft voice spoke up from somewhere behind the pointed ears of our German Shepherd.
“Please, Allie. I’ll help you.”
Pettikin peeked out from behind Socrates, floppy Santa hat first, then big blue eyes.
I looked over at Andie. It was as if she were reading my thoughts.
“You were never gonna be normal anyway, Al.”
We stared at each other for a second, like we were forging some kind of unspoken agreement.
“Dad,” I started.
“Allie, I know you’re kind, and that you want to help the gnome, but there could be other ways, we haven’t explored all options,”
I closed my eyes and shook my head as if to keep his thoughts from penetrating my brain and confusing me before I could speak.
“No, Dad, listen. I have to.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you, you don’t have to do anything, there’s still time…”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean I have to.” I opened my eyes. “Knowing that all of this exists, that there’s a world outside anything I imagined, that I can be a part of it—I can’t say no to that. I have to do it. I couldn’t live with myself knowing there was an opportunity like this out there and I didn’t take it. I would be wondering about it for the rest of my life. Yes, I want to help Pettikin, and Mrs. Widgit and the Professor, but also I’m saying that I want to do this. That’s my decision.”
Vala’s eyes were still closed, the air around him still golden, but he was smiling. “That’s my girl.”
“So, if Allie’s going to be the new Gatekeeper, who’s going to be her ally?” Andie asked.
Vala opened his eyes and sort of came back into focus. “Duh.”
It dispelled the tension in the room, if nothing else. Everyone laughed.
Dad sighed.
“OK, Allie,” he said. “If this is really your decision, then I won’t interfere anymore. Except, of course, in whatever way I can to help get Pettikin home while Andie’s still learning the ropes of her job. Hope you know what you just signed up for, kiddo.”
“No clue,” Andie said. “Can I have a cookie? I’m starving.”
Everyone laughed again, and we all crowded around the table to help ourselves to Bob’s cookies, still warm from the oven.
11
Vala didn’t eat.
At least not at first, although he was very concerned that Andie and I eat something more substantial than just cookies for lunch. We heated up the rest of the tuna casserole from the night before while Dad ran up to the house to make us a salad.
Vala stood a little removed from the rest of us while we ate and chatted. Mrs. Widgit passed the plate of cookies around again after lunch, but when she held the plate out to Vala, he held up one hand and shook his head. I noticed that Bob, who was still baking, seemed a little crestfallen. Vala must have noticed too because he then said, “I was hoping Bob would let me have one of the fresh ones from the oven.”
Bob beamed and placed a freshly baked snickerdoodle on a napkin. He dusted it with nutmeg and carried it over to Vala, who smiled his thanks.
“Your cookies are delicious, Bob,” Andie said from around a large mouthful. Bob shot her a shy smile.
“The chocolate chip ones, too,” I added somewhat incredulously as I remembered Mrs. Widgit’s baking technique.
Mrs. Widgit bustled around the kitchen clearing plates and napkins and checking tea mugs to see if any needed refilling (they didn’t).
After a few more minutes of what almost passed for normalcy, Vala caught my eyes. His cookie was gone, although I hadn’t seen him eat it.
“We should get started. There’s a lot to do.” His expression was solemn, but not unfriendly. I had the feeling that he was transmitting something to me telepathically, but I wasn’t sure what. Maybe courage, because I didn’t feel particularly worried or nervous. I pushed myself up from the table and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was a little after one o’clock.
Professor Theopolous pushed his chair back from the table.
“Yes. Well. There is the matter of the girl’s training.”
The girl—like I wasn’t standing right there.
“She hasn’t had much, really any, to speak of. I have agreed, however, to train her despite her advanced age. If we get started right away, I think that in a matter of weeks—”
Vala cut him off. “You agreed to train her, Theo? Well, you’re fired.”
Professor Theopolous blinked.
I scrunched my forehead. “So, who’s going to…”
“I’ll teach you myself,” Vala said.
�
��Oh boy,” Dad pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Allie, Pettikin, come.” Vala’s tone was commanding. He turned and strode toward the kitchen door.
Pettikin leapt down from Socrates, raced across the kitchen floor and up to my shoulders. I hurried after Vala.
“Where are we going?”
“You’re going to take Pettikin home of course. Bob—we’ll need the alpacas.”
“Right!” Bob set down his spatula and hurriedly untied his apron. “Viola…”
Mrs. Widgit appeared by his side, took the wadded up apron he shoved at her with one hand and picked up the spatula with the other.
“I’ll get the cookies together for them Bob, don’t worry.”
Bob rushed past us and out the front door. Dad, Andie, and Professor Theopolous followed behind me.
“Vala,” Dad said, “While I know my very-smart-but-in-these-matters-quite-clueless daughter is no doubt honored that you have agreed to teach her personally…” he shot me a meaningful glance.
I was supposed to have felt honored by that? Crap. I was never going to get the hang of this Guardian etiquette thing.
Vala paused and waited for Dad to finish.
“As her father, knowing a little bit about you and, shall we say your methods, I can’t help but wonder—what, exactly, do you have planned?”
“What methods?” I asked.
Professor Theopolous, perhaps feeling like he needed to have some input into my gatekeeping education, answered.
“Let’s say, Allie, that you wanted to learn how to swim. And let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you didn’t know how—had never even been near the water in fact.” He looked pointedly at Vala who rolled his eyes dramatically, walked out the front door, and set off across the eastern lawn in the direction of the two old beech trees. The hazy clouds from the morning had burned away and been replaced by a bright blue sky with white meringue clouds. The air was cool, but the sun was warm, and everything had the feeling of being freshly scrubbed after the morning rain.
“There are some,” Professor Theopolous continued, somehow keeping pace with me even though I practically had to jog to keep up with Vala, “who would feel that it’s useful to take a gradual and measured approach to teaching you to swim. They might explain a few techniques to you, perhaps take you first into shallow water where you were able to stand on your own. They might give you an inflatable floating device to help keep you buoyant in deeper water while you were still learning.”
We arrived at the beech trees, which seemed somehow more normal and less spectacular than they had in the moonlight the night before. Vala turned around, and appeared both exasperated and amused.
“That’s great Theo, and after several months using your method, a person might be able to swim—if they had an inflatable floating device with them and if they weren’t so terrified of the water after everything you’d told them that they were still willing to try!”
“Sooo...what’s the other method?” I asked.
“We throw you into the deep end of the pool and see if you figure out that you already know how to swim.”
I knew I should have been worried. “Does that work for gatekeeping?”
Vala was thoughtful. “I don’t know. I’ve never tried it before.”
“No one has ever tried it before!” Professor Theopolous flung his arms out to his sides, with an ‘I can’t believe no one is listening to me’ expression on his face.
Dad scratched his head nervously.
“Honestly, Vala, are you sure about this? I’m surprised the other Guardians would agree to it. Why the urgency in training her so quickly?”
Vala’s face turned serious.
“There’s a Contractor here.”
Dad’s hand was still on his head, but he stopped scratching.
“Who?”
“Jim Cutter.”
Dad lowered his hand in slow motion. “Can you break the contract?”
“Not on Earth, not without killing the Contractor.”
“Then that’s why May let them kill her,” Dad’s voice was grim.
“Wait a minute, what?” Andie and I said at the same time.
“Aunt May was killed? I thought she died of an aneurism,” I said.
“The aneurism was likely caused by an attack from the sslorcs, Allie,” Professor Theopolous said. “Normally, May was so powerful that she could easily defend herself against such an attack. But by making a contract with the sslorcs, Jim Cutter momentarily obtained far more power than he normally would have.”
“He killed her?” I was incredulous.
“More likely the sslorcs did it without his knowledge, but the only defense against that attack would have been to kill the Contractor. It’s the only way to break a contract on Earth.” Vala said.
“Then why didn’t she kill him? Better he die than her! And why don’t you just kill him now?” My voice was a little too loud.
“Allie,” Dad moved to put a hand on my arm but Vala stopped him. His eyes bored into mine, his expression serious.
“Is that what you want Allie? Is that what you want me to do? Or, if I handed you a gun, would you do the job for me?”
Dad sucked in his breath.
Vala’s look was intense, and he was still holding my father’s wrist. I felt a horrible sick feeling in my stomach.
“I…I…” I started.
“Because if that is what you want, tell me now.”
I wished that an enormous hole would open in the ground and swallow me. I dropped my head, my face flaming.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t really mean that. I don’t even know why I said it.”
“Vala,” Dad started.
“Don’t defend her Dan. Let her speak for herself.”
I swallowed and forced myself to meet Vala’s gaze.
“Even if you handed me a gun, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I don’t even want to. Maybe it’s just because I’m a coward, not noble like Aunt May, but I know I couldn’t do it, and I don’t even know him like she did. I…I don’t know why I said something like that. I didn’t mean it. It was a really stupid thing to say. I’m sorry.”
Vala’s eyes narrowed, as if he were searching for something in my soul. “He was once my student. I don’t abandon my students no matter how far they fall. I will save that man.” His expression was almost pleading with me. “You understand me, right?”
I nodded. I felt a strange pressure around my heart, and my eyes welled with tears.
Vala released my father’s arm.
“She’s strong, Dan. I need her to be strong.”
Dad gave my arm a sympathetic squeeze.
Vala addressed the adults again. “If I leave the Gateways closed now, with a contractor here and no Gatekeeper, what will keep Earth from becoming a shadow world? Do you have the power to stop the sslorcs on your own, without my help?”
“A shadow world? Is there really a danger of that?” Dad asked.
“The way things stood a few hours ago, yes. If I want to keep the Gateways open, I need to establish a new Gatekeeper quickly. Because Allie’s younger and less experienced than May, they may try to take advantage of the situation. If we hurry, we have the advantage of surprise.”
I felt really, really small and inadequate and stupid. I just wanted to help Pettikin get home and now there were grand, cosmic issues at stake. What had I done?
Vala answered my thoughts as though he had heard them. “We’re all just a small part of something that’s much bigger than us. You’re not required to know or understand the big picture—that’s my job. All you have to do is perform the task that’s currently in front of you as best you can.”
But what if I can’t? I thought.
If Vala heard that thought he ignored it. He gazed up at the old beech trees for a moment, then turned to me and Pettikin, scanning us up and down. He paced back and forth with his uneven, meandering gait for a while, staring at the ground. Finally he stopped in front of us.
&nbs
p; “OK. This is what has to happen for this to work.”
I felt Pettikin lean forward attentively.
“Normally, Allie, you would have already been training for several years before attempting something like this. The training you would have received is designed to help an apprentice Gatekeeper amass and store a certain amount of power—power that you need just to be able to see the Gateways and enter them. You don’t have that much power yet, so I will have to give it to you.
“In addition, I will give you the keys to the secret dimensions around Earth. You will need them to open the Gateways between the dimensions and travel through them to the higher worlds on the other side.”
Professor Theopolous made a noise that sounded almost like a whimper.
“Oh have a little faith, Theo,” to my surprise it was Dad who answered, sounding a little irritated.
Vala started pacing again. “Now comes the hard part. In order for me to give the keys to you, or any apprentice Gatekeeper, you’re supposed to first complete a trial—a series of tests to demonstrate that you have learned the disciplines of Gatekeeping and are worthy of owning the keys. Since you haven’t had the benefit of years of training from your Aunt May, or even the torture of a week of training with Professor Theopolous—”
Andie snorted and then inched away from the Professor when he glared at her.
“—I’ve decided to keep it simple and, also, to accomplish two goals at once. Let’s say that I will temporarily loan you the keys you need to get through the secret dimensions. Your trial will be to take Pettikin through them and stay with him on the other side, in the higher worlds, until he is safely home on Arcorn. Oh, and then find your way back here of course.”
I pictured myself lost in some kind of void trying to find my way back to Earth. What would happen if I didn’t make it?
“If you succeed, you keep the keys and become the new Gatekeeper. So do you think you can do that?”
I swallowed and tucked my hair behind my ears. “Well, I mean—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Vala answered for me. “Of course you can’t. You have no idea what I’m talking about.” His tone was teasing, not mean. I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
