by Janean Worth
“Tell us!” Enforcer Gabert drew Kara close and shouted in her face. “Tell us where he is!”
Even from his perch high in the tree, Mathew could hear Kara gasp as Gabert drew a long knife from his belt and held it to her throat.
“Tell us, or suffer the consequences, Stray!”
Mathew cowered. Kara, however, did not.
“I will not tell you. It would not be the right thing to do. I hope that he is on his way to the Narrow Gate right now. I hope he finds the Way. And I hope that you don’t.”
Another Enforcer laughed, “The little Stray is a Believer, Gabert! No wonder she won’t tell. She thinks that if she doesn’t do the right thing, she won’t find her own Way, and that she might as well die if that’s the case.”
“She’ll tell me, or she will die,” Gabert muttered.
Mathew gazed down at them in amazement. Were the Enforcer’s words true? Was Kara’s faith that she would find the Narrow Gate strong enough that she would die rather than not do the right thing? Was she so sure she would find her father and a better place behind the Narrow Gate?
He wished that he had some of her faith. His own heart felt hollow with fear and doubt.
Perhaps if he did the right thing he would feel better? Perhaps if he tried to share her belief, the hollow feeling would go away?
Mathew swallowed hard, and tried not to think too much about what doing the right thing could cost him. He stood up and pulled the Old Tech from his pocket.
Kara had asked him not to give it to them. But, he was fairly sure that doing the right thing meant saving Kara from the House and not allowing her to be hurt or killed by the Enforcers.
He pressed the button on the side, hoping it would work this time, when he needed it so badly. When the face of the device lit up, he almost shouted with joy.
He held the Old Tech out away from his body, so that the Enforcers would have a harder time shooting him if they decided that they wanted to kill him instead of just barter for the device.
“Is this what you want?” he shouted down to them.
The tracken beasts growled, and the Enforcers looked up to where he stood in the tree. One of them had an Old Tech device that emitted an unnaturally bright light, and he pointed it up into the tree, shining it in Mathew’s face.
“There you are, boy,” one of them shouted back. “Decided to save your friend, did you? Come down from the tree and she won’t be harmed.”
“No, you let her go. Untie her hands and let her run away. Then I will come down and give this to you.”
“No,” Kara gasped. “No, don’t give it to them.”
“Be quiet, Stray,” Gabert hissed, cuffing her on the side of the head with the flat of his palm. Kara sagged under the blow.
“Don’t hit her again!” Mathew shouted. “Don’t, or else you won’t get the device. It must be very special if you have come all this way to get it.”
“Old Tech is not special, it is illegal. You are breaking the Law just by having it Stray. Come down now and you and your friend won’t be harmed.” Gabert moved closer to the trunk of the tree.
Mathew couldn’t help but wonder why, if Old Tech was so forbidden, the Enforcers carried and used such objects so openly.
“I said let her go.” Mathew’s heart was pounding. He’d thought they would be more willing to bargain for the Old Tech. Why weren’t they cooperating? “Let her go, or… Or, I’m going to destroy this Old Tech.”
He drew the Old Tech closer, staring at its lit face, wondering why they had chased him into the Old Forest for it. It must do something amazing. Even more amazing than showing moving pictures. But what?
He touched the face of the thing, his fingers gliding over symbols and tiny pictures that he had not noticed before.
Chapter Eleven
Suddenly, the device made an odd chirping sound, then an image of his father’s face filled the front of the device again. This time it was different than a moving picture. The image of his father seemed to actually be able to see him.
“Mathew?” the image asked.
It was definitely his father, looking older than he had in the moving picture, but still enough like the photo of the man that Mathew’s mother had kept on her dresser that Mathew easily recognized him.
“Y…yes? Father? Is that you?”
“Yes, son, it is me.”
Stunned, Mathew leaned against the rough bark of the tree trunk for support as his knees went weak. “How is this possible? How can I see you and talk to you?”
“That’s not important right now. I’ve been keeping track of you through the device. Right now, you seem to be in the company of several Enforcers. Are you all right?”
Mathew’s brain whirled. How could his father know that? No wonder the Old Tech was illegal. It was akin to magic! Mathew’s fingers trembled as he held the device closer to his face. “Yes, but they’ve got Kara. They’re going to kill her.”
Mathew’s father frowned.
“Where are you Father? Why did you stay away? Mother is dead and I’m a Stray!”
“We can talk about those things later. Right now, I need you to listen to me very carefully. The Old Tech you have is very powerful. It can do many things. It can also become more powerful if you place it in the sun. This is important to know.”
Mathew nodded at his father’s image, knowing it was true.
“You need to climb down the tree and – “
A shout from the Enforcers below interrupted Mathew’s attention. He looked away from the Old Tech to see Gabert holding Kara up by the collar of her ragged shirt. The other Enforcer shined the light on her so that Mathew could see her clearly.
“Boy, quit playing with the Old Tech and bring it down to us now, or she dies,” Gabert shouted, shoving his knife close to her neck again.
Mathew looked back to his father’s image on the Old Tech. “Help me! Please!”
His father nodded, “Yes, I will, please listen. You must climb down the tree first, then pretend to hand the device to them. Point the end with the green light toward them, and press the picture on the face of the device shaped like a lightening bolt. Have you seen the green light before?”
“Yes,” Mathew nodded.
“After this is done, the Old Tech will not work. It will need much time in the sun before it will work again. You won’t be able to contact me, or I you, until it has had its time.”
“I understand. But I need to know. Is the Narrow Gate real?”
His father’s image nodded. “Yes, now you must hurry. Kara needs you.”
“Yes, Father.” Mathew began to put the Old Tech in his pocket to free his hands for the climb, but his father spoke again.
“Mathew? I need you to know something. You must learn to do the right thing, it is true. Don’t lose heart if you cannot speak to me. Just learn to do the right thing, become the person you need to be in order to travel to the Narrow Gate.”
“But, Father, I don’t know how!” Mathew wanted to argue further and take the time to ask his father all the questions swirling in his mind. He wanted to know how to do the right thing. He wanted to know why his mother had said his father was dead and why his father had left them. Surely, neither his mother’s lies nor his father’s absence had been the right thing?
Gabert shouted again from below.
“There is no time. Just do what must be done now. That is the right thing in this moment.”
Mathew nodded. “Yes, Father.”
He put the device in his pocket and started the climb down the tree, grateful that Kara had left her bag, and the metal climbing spikes, with him.
The Enforcers jeered at him as he climbed down slowly, but he ignored them to concentrate on the task of placing the spikes. In the back of his mind, he wondered why he was climbing down to save Kara, when he would have been safer staying in the tree. He hadn’t known her that long. She was only a Stray. He didn’t really owe her anything, did he?
But he knew that he did. Besides
, he was starting to care about Kara, really care about her, what happened to her, how she felt. He had to save her. He just had to. And, anyway, his father had said it was the right thing to do.
His heart pounded with fear as he thought about what could happen if the Old Tech failed him, and they were both taken to the House. He felt a cold clammy sweat break out on his neck at the horrific images that thought brought to his mind: years of slavery to the Sovereign, beatings, starvation, filth, poverty and abject submission. He couldn’t bear to think on it further, so he shut the thoughts away and concentrated on the climb.
When he reached the bottom of the tree, he put the spikes back in Kara’s bag, careful not to bump Jax, and then turned slowly to face the Enforcers and their tracken. Gabert still held Kara, and she was crying.
Gabert was smiling.
Mathew felt anger replace his fear. He took the device from his pocket, touching the front so that it would light up again as it had earlier. He was careful to point the end with the green light at Gabert, just as his father had directed. His finger hovered over the picture with the lightening bolt.
“Do you want this?” Mathew asked, extending the device toward Gabert.
Gabert slung Kara under one muscled arm and reached forward with the other to take the device.
Mathew closed his eyes and pressed the bolt. Even behind his closed lids, he saw an explosion of bluish light, but he felt nothing from the device.
He heard Gabert grunt and Kara gasp, then all was silent.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. Every living thing in front of him lay prone on the forest floor - the Enforcers, their horses, even the tracken.
For a moment, Mathew was struck with horror. Had the Old Tech killed them all? He looked at the Old Tech, now dark again, and carefully put it back in his pocket before rushing to Kara’s side.
He knelt beside her, grateful to see that her chest still moved. She still breathed. Relief filled him when he realized that she was not dead. He hurriedly untied her hands, then bent closer to look at the damage done to her face by Gabert’s fist. It didn’t look too bad, but coupled with her other injuries, it was worrisome.
Looking around, he could see that the Enforcers, their horses and the tracken were still alive too. Their chests rose and fell as they breathed the still night air. How long before they all woke up again? What had the Old Tech done to them all?
Something rustled loudly in the bushes behind him, and he whirled around, expecting a Fidget, but it was only Gabert’s horse. It must have wandered off and avoided getting caught in whatever the Old Tech had done to the others.
Mathew didn’t want to waste any time waiting around to see how long it took the Enforcers to recover. He retrieved the Old Tech light from the fallen Enforcer and gathered the trailing reins of Gabert’s horse, then hoisted Kara up into the saddle. She did not weigh much at all, so the task was not difficult. At the feel of her delicate bones and gaunt thinness, tenderness pricked his heart. She was so tough and smart that he had forgotten how frail she really was.
He clambered up behind her in the saddle, uncomfortable and awkward on the back of the animal, and hastily directed the horse out of the clearing, shining the Enforcer’s Old Tech light in front of the horse to show the way.
He hoped that it was enough to keep the Fidgets away.
Chapter Twelve
As they travelled through the night, Mathew worried. Kara still hadn’t woken up yet, and it had been quite a while since they’d left the Enforcers lying on the forest floor. While it was a good thing if the Enforcers hadn’t woken up in that amount of time, it scared him that Kara was still unconscious. He had put her in front of him in the saddle, and had her leaned back against his chest, so he could feel her breathing. She was alive, and that offered him some consolation.
He’d grown quite attached to her in the last few days, and he didn’t know what he would do if she didn’t wake up at all. He vowed to himself to try to take better care of her when she did wake up.
Gabert’s horse was a good animal, it didn’t give him any trouble, which he was very grateful for. It was hard enough to keep himself and Kara in the saddle, hold the Enforcer’s Old Tech device to light the way, balance Kara’s bag with Jax moving around inside it and guide the horse with the reins. He didn’t know if he would have been able to manage it if the horse had not been so well-behaved.
After they’d left the Enforcers behind he had headed right to the river in an attempt to hide their scent, risking attack from any Fidgets who might be brave enough to ignore the light that he held. Once there, he’d had the horse walk in the shallows for several miles before they’d climbed the bank and left the water behind. He was fairly sure that the tracken would not be able to pick up their scent after that. Perhaps the beasts couldn’t follow their scent at all, since they rode Gabert’s horse, and that was obviously a scent that the tracken were familiar with. It was quite possible that they would not recognize the horse as prey.
Mathew now wished heartily for the bright light of day, afraid that any moment the Old Tech light would give out and he would be left in darkness. Dawn’s light glimmered faintly on the horizon, but he didn’t know if that was enough to keep the Fidgets away should the light go out. Not only would the daylight keep the Fidgets hidden in their dark underground burrows, it would also provide the light that his Old Tech needed, and he desperately wanted to be able to use it to talk to his father again. He had so many questions that he needed answered.
He slowed the horse to a walk when the light he held illuminated a strange road in front of them. This road was covered with something grey and hard, not made of packed dirt like the roads that led to and from GateWide. In some places the surface of the strange road was as smooth as still water, but in others the surface had cracked and broken up, allowing weeds and brush to take up residence there. Only a few trees grew out of the surface here and there, but they were not nearly the size of the trees in the forest, so Mathew guessed they were fairly new growth. The road in front of them must be from before The Fall. He’d seen pictures in books of the way things were before The Fall, and the road looked just like them. In the books his tutor had shown him, the roads had all led to something called cities, where massive structures called sky-scrapers had blocked the view in every direction. The books also said that the sky-scrapers were filled with Old Tech, which Mathew had found intriguing. And now that he knew how powerful even one Old Tech device could be, the idea of a whole city filled with them intrigued him even more.
He guided Gabert’s horse up onto the road, leaving the cover of the Old Forest behind. If there was a city ahead, perhaps he could find something that would help them in that city; food, shelter or more Old Tech. He wondered what life had been like in the Time of Tech. The things that he had read had been fantastical, and until recently, he hadn’t believed that any of them could have been true. He’d thought they were all just stories.
It must have been wonderful to live in the Time of Tech. But it also must have been horrible too. If even half of the things he had read about that time had been true, The Time of Tech had been filled with incomprehensible dangers and astounding delights.
The horse’s hooves clacked against the hard grey surface of the road, and Kara stirred against his chest. He tightened his grip on her slender waist to keep her on the horse. She moaned a little, then shifted to the side. Mathew could tell when she came fully awake, because her whole body tensed for a moment, then slowly relaxed again as she took in her surroundings.
“Mathew? Where are we?” she whispered into the darkness. She sat up straighter, leaning against the saddle horn, and Mathew withdrew his arm from around her waist.
“We seem to be on a road from the days before The Fall. Other than that, I don’t know exactly where we are. “
It was easier to ride when he wasn’t supporting Kara, but for some reason, he missed cradling her against his chest. He handed her the light he’d taken from the Enforcer.
&n
bsp; “Can you hold this to light the way?” he asked her, pressing it gently into her fingers.
“Yes,” she mumbled as she took the light. “And where’s Jax?”
“He’s right here, in your bag. Don’t worry, he’s fine.”
Kara sounded relieved, “Good. That’s good. Thank you for taking care of him. And the Old Tech? You didn’t give it to the Enforcers, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Where are the Enforcers and the tracken? What did you do to us all with the Old Tech? How long have I been asleep?”
“We left the Enforcers and tracken behind. I don’t know what the Old Tech did to you, but I’m glad you are okay. You have been out for a little over an hour now.”
“You don’t know what you did to us? How the Old Tech made us sleep?” She sounded aghast that he’d taken such a risk.
“No, but it was my only choice. And my father said it was the right thing to do, so I did it.” He suddenly felt a bit defensive. It really had been the only thing he could have done. Why couldn’t she just be happy that he’d done the right thing for a change?
“Oh, ok, well… Thank you, then.”
“Sure. I’m just glad you are alright.”
“You are?” Kara’s voice couldn’t hide her surprise.
“Well, yes, I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’ve never seemed to want me around that much, so thank you again for not leaving me there.”
Mathew knew that was true. He really hadn’t wanted her around much. But he was glad she had been. She’d saved his life quite a few times. “I’m sorry about that. I don’t feel that way any more. I won’t leave you behind again.”
“Are you sure we should be on this road? The horse is making an awful lot of noise,” she asked, changing the subject.
“I wondered about that myself, but so far the light has kept the Fidgets away and I haven’t heard any sign of the Enforcers or tracken. Besides, I’m hoping that there is a city ahead.”
