The Silver Gate

by Kristin Bailey

  “Believing is easy,” she said. “Like wishing for eggs. Lighting a fire is hard. You can do that.”

  Something deep within him melted as he closed his hand over the smooth stone. For a moment he wondered where it came from. There had to be a creek or a river nearby to tumble the rough edges off it.

  “I can’t believe,” he admitted in a soft voice as he stroked his thumb over the surface of the stone. “If I believed in fairies, that would mean they switched you for another baby. It would mean you’re not my sister.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Wynn

  WYNN SHIVERED AS SHE LOOKED up at Elric. His lips were purple. That was strange. They didn’t usually look that way. He wasn’t making sense. Maybe it was the cold confusing him.

  “You’re my brother. Mother is your mother too.” Wynn grabbed the edges of her cloak and pulled them around her body. It made her a little warmer. Her toes felt funny, though. Snow was sticking to Elric’s hair.

  “But if you were taken by fairies, then Mother wasn’t your mother.” Elric started walking and Wynn followed. Walking made her feel warmer.

  “I know my mother.” Wynn trotted forward and caught Mildred. She didn’t run very fast. Maybe she wanted to be caught. Wynn cuddled her close to her chest, tucking the edges of her cloak around the hen. The snow stuck to her bony legs.

  “I know you know who Mother is, but if you really are a changeling, then she is not your real mother and I am not your real brother.” His face looked sad, and serious. “I don’t believe that.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said slowly. She didn’t like saying those words. Elric always got frustrated every time she did.

  “If the fairies exist, then they stole a baby and took her away and left you in her place.” Elric made several gestures with his hands, but they made less sense than his words.

  “I don’t know that baby,” she said, still watching his hands. “Is she my sister?”

  “Never mind.” Elric pushed his hair back from his face. “You don’t understand, and it doesn’t matter.” He turned slowly in a circle, peering through the white trees. “The road is this way. We should be able to find the lake from here, but I can’t see it through the snow.”

  More snow floated around them. It was very pretty, and Wynn took Elric’s hand. “I know things. You’re my brother.”

  He gave her hand a squeeze.

  She wasn’t worried. They would find the Silver Gate soon. Wynn wanted to sing, but when she opened her mouth, her teeth chattered, so she shut them tight and walked with Elric.

  It wouldn’t take long, and something would come to lead her on the right path. Then she could protect Elric and take him someplace warm.

  But they walked for hours. They kept climbing so Elric could try to find a lookout and see the lake, but they didn’t find one. And everything through the trees was a blur of white and gray. Still they climbed. Elric had wrapped extra cloth around her head. She didn’t like having it over her mouth, but it was warmer with it on, so she didn’t complain. She could feel her breath against the fabric every time she breathed out, warm, then cold and damp.

  The snow was getting deeper. She couldn’t pick up her feet as easily as she had before. Wynn tried to step in the pockets that Elric’s feet made. Her ankles ached and she couldn’t feel her toes.

  But there would be a sign soon. There had to be.

  The storm grew darker. Wynn’s tummy rumbled and her body shook all over. She was cold, so very cold. There was a howl in the air.

  Oh no, the Grendel was coming.

  “We should be able to see the lake from here,” Elric muttered, his voice muffled by the cloth tied around his face.

  All Wynn could see was swirling snowflakes all around them. The silver trees had thinned out, leaving nothing but snow and rocks before them.

  Mildred’s head drooped. Her eyes closed as her neck fell limp against her breast.

  “Elric!” Wynn called, tucking the hen closer to her body.

  Mildred shouldn’t look that way. That’s not how she looked when she was sleeping.

  Elric stumbled in the snow as he tried to come back to reach her. The wind picked up.

  Cold cut straight through Wynn’s body. She felt it like knives.

  There had to be a sign. She just had to wait. But the Grendel would come with the wind.

  “Get in the shadow of that boulder!” Elric called. “We have to wait out the storm!”

  A large rock jutted up out of the mountainside with a scraggly dead tree growing out from beside it. Snow drifted to either side of the boulder, creating a pocket of shallow snow right behind. They could hide from the Grendel there.

  Wynn pushed forward, her heart racing as she clung to Mildred. “Don’t worry, Mildred. We will be safe.”

  Wynn climbed, her feet slipping in the snow as she struggled to the rock.

  Elric pushed her up from behind, and she collapsed in the shallow pit that the drifting snow had formed at the base of the boulder.

  She stroked Mildred’s feathers. Again she tried to sing, but her throat was too tight. She couldn’t do it.

  Elric crouched next to her and spread his own cloak over hers. He tucked her close to his side.

  Wynn looked out at the dizzy swirl of falling snow, and a heaviness stole over her.

  “Don’t worry, Wynn. We’ll make it through this.” Elric rubbed her shoulder, but she could feel his body shaking beside her.

  She didn’t know if she could speak.

  She wanted to close her eyes. She was so sleepy.

  On the night of the storm, Mother wanted to sleep. Wynn kept trying to wake her, but she said she had to sleep. Sleep wasn’t what took her, death did.

  Wynn couldn’t stop it. She tried to keep her eyes open, but they were so heavy. She didn’t want to leave Elric alone. It would make him sad. He wouldn’t have Mother anymore, and he wouldn’t have her. He would be left with Father, who was angry. Wynn feared Elric would turn angry too. She didn’t want that.

  She was sad. She wanted to meet the Fairy Queen. Elric had said she was very beautiful. Wynn hoped she would be kind.

  But now they would not find her.

  “Elric?” she whispered.

  “What is it?” He rubbed more vigorously, as if the motion of his arm could coax life back into her body.

  “You are a good brother.” She reached down and clutched her severed braid still tucked in her belt. He protected her. He always did his best.

  He let out a huff, a half laugh. “I don’t know about that.” He pulled her in close to his body. “But I’m glad you’re my sister.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered. She closed her eyes. She could still see the bright light with them shut. “For taking me on an adventure. I’m sorry we didn’t find the gate.”

  “Wynn?” She felt his hands on both her shoulders. He shook her, her head flopping. She couldn’t keep it straight. She didn’t want to anymore. Her arm relaxed and Mildred slipped out of her grasp. “Wynn! Don’t go to sleep!”

  The cold rushed in. She couldn’t fight the storm anymore.

  “I love you, big brother.” Her words drifted far away from her on the howling wind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Elric

  “WYNN!” ELRIC PULLED HER TIGHTER in his arms, slapping her cheeks with his frozen fingers. Her skin looked blue. “Wynn, you have to wake up. Don’t go to sleep. Please.”

  Mildred lay in the snow near Wynn’s lap. She feebly flapped a wing. Elric grabbed the sack near his side and tucked the hen in it. Hopefully she would warm up inside. He didn’t want to lose her, either. Wynn would never forgive him if she died.

  With Mildred stowed away, Elric used both his arms to lift Wynn closer to his body. The snow settled on the woven cap Osmund had given her and stuck to the frozen tips of her hair.

  A desperation seized him, something primal and terrifying. He couldn’t let her die here. Not like this. Not after everything they had gone th
rough.

  He wouldn’t fail her.

  “Wake up,” he said to her. Her head lolled against his shoulder. His hands shook as he brushed a strand of her frozen hair away from her discolored lips. She was so still. Too still. A snowflake settled on her eyelash, but it did not stir. “You are the most stubborn girl I know. Don’t you give up on me now. You never give up on anything.”

  He rocked her, but the motion did little to comfort either one of them. “You didn’t give up when you had to carry me to that clearing. You didn’t give up when you tried to mend Mother’s spoon.” He could feel the end of it poking into his back through the sack. Her patch hadn’t held, but he didn’t care. She had tried. “Wynn, you’re a dragon. Fight. Please!”

  Her eyelids fluttered, but did not open. Still, the slight movement gave him hope. He had to get her off this mountain.

  He struggled to lift her to her feet, but his own legs were weak. He managed to drag her up to his waist, but her arms were limp. He shook so badly he couldn’t hold her, and she fell backward into the snow.

  She lay there, her limbs tangled around her and snow coating her cloak. It dusted every part of her, as if attempting to swallow her beneath its merciless drifts.

  No . . . not Wynn. He couldn’t lose her, too.

  “Help me!” Elric screamed into the howling winds. They only grew louder and more monstrous. “Someone help my sister!”

  The words ripped from his burning throat. He fell to his knees, unable to stand. “Help me, please.”

  Warm tears slipped over his cheeks as he pulled Wynn close and held her as tight as he could.

  “I’m sorry.” His tears fell onto her face. “All I wanted was to keep you safe. I didn’t want to see you hurt. You didn’t deserve it. You don’t deserve this.”

  He gulped, his voice raw as his strength drained from his body. “I love you, Wynn. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

  This was the end.

  Elric let out a ragged breath, tucking his cheek against his little sister’s head. She never stopped believing they would find a way out of this world that wanted to hurt them, that her song would save them.

  Softly, so softly, he sang.

  “My queen, my queen, I’ll travel far,

  To seek your favor high.

  On mountain cold, with icy peak,

  My road, it will draw nigh.

  Please grant to me your silver branch,

  And through the gate I’ll find you.”

  His voice wavered, but as he sang, the winds stilled. He could almost hear music carried on the wind. Perhaps the storm was breaking. He didn’t know where the words came from, he knew only that he had to finish the song. Without thinking, new words formed, ones Wynn never uttered in the thousands of times he had heard her sing.

  “My queen, my queen, I sing for you,

  Your audience I seek.

  In your mercy, spare her life,

  A humble servant meek.

  Please grant to me your silver branch,

  And through the gate I’ll find you.”

  A loud crack shattered the sound of the winds as a branch the size of a large staff fell from the dead tree only inches from him. Ice coated it, giving it a silver sheen.

  It couldn’t be. This was impossible.

  But hope, impossible hope, flared in his heart.

  How could he believe what he was seeing?

  You will see what you believe you see.

  He heard his mother’s voice as clearly as if she were standing beside him. As he looked out into the swirling snow, it parted, the snowflakes weaving and swirling together to create an archway before him.

  Believing is easy. Wynn’s voice in his memory sounded so matter-of-fact, as if her words were the simplest of truths. Perhaps they were.

  Grasping the silver branch, he hauled his body upright. The strange, swirling gap in the storm gathered more and more snow on its edges, the arch becoming clearer.

  Gritting his teeth, Elric shouldered the sack with Mildred, letting it sag beneath his arm, but left the other behind. He could feel his strength waning, and the gate shouldn’t be far. The ice on the branch melted beneath the heat of his palm, but he gripped it tighter, clinging to the solid weight of it as he bent and hauled his sister up onto his back.

  “I see it, Wynn,” he murmured to her as he staggered under her limp weight. He settled her as he would an injured lamb on his shoulder. “You were right. We found it. Don’t give up now.”

  He prayed the light of life was still in her. He was almost there.

  He took one step, his foot dragging through the snow as he leaned on the staff, but he staggered and fell hard to his knee.

  No. He would not give up. He could see it. He would make it to the gate.

  “Don’t give up.” His words strengthened him as he pushed hard on the branch to rise again. “Don’t give up.”

  One foot . . . another . . .

  His body screamed at him in pain. He didn’t care. It was nothing compared to the pain of Wynn fading before his eyes.

  One more step . . . again. . . .

  The bitter wind blew through him to his bones, stealing his strength, and begging him to lie down and sleep. No.

  The wind died at the edge of the gate, though he could hear it howling with rage just beyond.

  He stumbled, falling forward into the snow with Wynn a heavy weight on his back. He was almost there. He tried to push himself up, to stand again, but he couldn’t.

  His eyes watered, and with his vision blurred, he swore he saw the arches of the gate solidify from the snow, a tower of ice and swirling mist. Light danced to the strange music on the wind within the depths of the ice. It was beautiful. The gate was only feet away. He could see a light now, like a glowing watery mist, a promise of life between the icy columns. The gate looked solid, real. For the first time, whether it was actually real or not didn’t matter. It was right there. He believed it was real.

  Throwing his arm forward, he used the branch to drag their bodies through the deep snow. He closed his eyes and shouted as he pulled. He was slipping, falling, tumbling into nothingness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Elric

  WARMTH SPREAD THROUGH ELRIC’S BODY. He was dead. It was over. Then suddenly pain flared through his limbs. His muscles ached and his hands and feet felt like they were on fire. Perhaps he wasn’t dead after all. He didn’t think being dead was supposed to hurt this much. His head seemed as if it were stuffed with thick wool. He blinked open his eyes.

  A pair of enormous amber eyes blinked back at him only inches from his face.

  “Arrrrrggggghhhh!” Elric shouted as he sat up and scrambled backward. Soft moss felt like a sponge beneath his hands as strange blinking lights floated around his head.

  He shook his head to clear his vision and looked upon the strangest creature he had ever seen.

  About the size of a large cat, it had an elfish face and a mop of black hair. Its nose was long and pointed, and its teeth looked sharp and fang-like. Two enormous fox ears with deep-red tips pointed in different directions as the creature sniffed at him.

  The top of its shoulders and arms were bare, though dark red fur grew over its forearms to the knuckles of its bony hands. The rest of its body resembled something like a rabbit coated with the same red fur. Instead of a fluffy white tail, a long ratlike tail that ended in a black tuft of fur swished back and forth as the thing stared at him.

  It reminded him of an unfortunate mix of man and squirrel, and moved with the same twitchy energy.

  “You are awake!” The creature had a strange high-pitched voice that didn’t seem to belong to man or woman. It hopped around in a small circle, using its hands the same way an animal would use its front legs, then sprang onto Elric’s chest and clapped. “This is pleasing, yes.”

  Elric used the side of his arm to swipe the strange creature off his chest. “What are you?” he asked. He glanced around. He appeared to be on a grassy bluff. The s
ky overhead shimmered with streaks and swirls of colored light. He’d never seen anything like it. But there were holes in the dome of light, dark places where the sky looked gray and storming in the distance. He pushed himself up and walked to the edge of the cliff. Just beyond the veil of shimmering color, a dark forest stretched out for miles, and beyond that, he could see the edge of a rocky and barren wasteland. Black clouds were building in that far and desolate place, a storm on the horizon.

  Small mothlike creatures fluttered around him. They emitted light, glowing from time to time, turning bright red before fading back to white. “What is this place?” Elric added.

  The creature slapped its strange tail on the ground and grinned. “I am Hob, and you are lucky. It is not easy for those from the Otherworld to find the Between. You fell and landed hard. Crunch.” The strange beast demonstrated the impact with a loud slap of his hands. He hopped up and down with excitement. “Otherworldlings never come here. The queen doesn’t have enough magic to make the gate appear anymore.” He pointed to one of the holes in the sky. “But you did it! You made the magic.”

  Elric winced as he flexed his fingers. He shooed some of the glowing moths from around his head. “I must be dreaming.” Hob bounced over to Elric’s sack and began rummaging through it, the entire top half of the creature disappearing into the satchel. “Hey! Get out of there,” Elric called, snatching the sack away, but not before Hob came away with the broken spoon.

  “Ooooooh.” The creature’s large amber eyes glowed as he held the pot, then put it on his head like a hat. “Otherworld things.” The pot nearly covered the creature’s whole body. He hopped out from under it, then sat on it like a stool. He scrunched up his nose as he sniffed the handle of the spoon, then licked it.

  “Give that back!” Elric snatched it away, and the creature’s ears tipped down, giving it a sullen expression. It was pitiful, really, and Elric didn’t wish to be rude. “Here, have the cork for the honey.” He twisted the cork out of the top of the empty honey bottle and tossed it at Hob. He leaped high into the air and caught it, then bounced around Elric doing a flip every third hop or so.