by Janean Worth
“Get on Gallant, Kara,” he whispered. “Quickly.”
He gently nudged her toward the horse and saw Otto help her mount out of the corner of his eye. He kept the focus of his gaze on the tracken, which still had its nose to the ground and had not noticed them yet.
Kara could no more outrun a tracken in her condition than a bird in a cage could escape a questing hand thrust inside its prison. But, on Gallant, she could make an escape easily. He was betting that Gallant’s scent was familiar to the tracken, and would not elicit a prey response in the animal.
The tracken looked up just as Kara managed to scramble into the saddle. It yowled, long and loud. The ululating sound echoed between the jumble of devastated buildings, announcing their presence to the Enforcers who rounded the corner a moment later.
Chapter Nineteen
Mathew felt a moment of indecision. It would be safer for Kara if she left without him. He would stay and lead the Enforcers off in another direction. He cringed at the thought of being hauled back to the House, a pathetic Stray in the hands of the Enforcers, but he really had no choice. It was the right thing to do.
“Go,” Mathew yelled at Kara. “I will lead them away.”
He turned to run, wondering which way he should go.
Otto helped make up his mind. The metal giant grabbed him from behind, latching onto the collar of his shirt and the waistband of his pants with both enormous hands, and then tossed him into the saddle behind Kara.
“This way,” the giant said, then took off at a full-out run.
Mathew was amazed at the giant’s speed. He had not thought that a metal man could run so fast.
Kara encouraged Gallant into a gallop, and Otto kept perfect pace, staying just a few steps in front of the horse so that he could guide their progress.
While Kara held the reins and followed Otto, Mathew kept an eye on the Enforcers and tracken behind them.
Although the Enforcer’s horses and the tracken were both every bit as fast as Gallant, they were not gaining ground. In fact, thanks to Otto’s knowledge of the city, the Enforcers were actually falling behind.
Otto continued to lead them through a maze of twists and turns, each one seeming to come quicker than the last. Gallant took the corners at a gallop without complaint.
Otto seemed to be picking a path through the city that was both easiest for Gallant to endure, yet the hardest for the Enforcers to follow. Otto ran through so many turns and sprinted around so many corners that Mathew felt a bit dizzy. He would have been lost for certain without Otto to guide them. And they most certainly would not have been leaving the Enforcers behind without Otto’s help.
Mathew lost sight of the Enforcers as Otto had them turn into a narrow path that led between two very high buildings that still stood, reaching for the sky, much as they must have before The Fall. Mathew craned his neck to see the sky as they galloped through the dim passage. The buildings were so high that they blocked out much of the day’s light. Mathew would never have imagined that a dwelling could be so big or reach so high into the sky.
The path that they travelled was so narrow that, had Mathew stretched out his arms as they galloped through the small passageway, his fingertips would have just brushed both sides of the filthy brick walls that enclosed them.
In moments, they were through the passage, and Otto made another sharp turn into another, equally tight, passageway.
Mathew could hear the yowling of the tracken behind them as the beasts tried to keep up, and the angry shouts of the Enforcers when they realized that they could no longer see their prey around the next turn.
Otto slowed to a stop, then motioned for them to squeeze past him in the passage.
“Please, do not be frightened, I must close the way behind us now that they are far enough away not to be hurt by falling debris.”
Without any further warning, the metal giant raised one hand, pointed his index finger at the tall crumbling top of the building that formed the right side of the passage, and shot a strange pulse of red light from his hand, aimed right at the farthest corner away from them.
The pulse of light hit the building with a sound like thunder, echoing down the narrow passage loudly. Mathew clapped his hands over his ears. Kara let out a frightened squeak and Gallant shied nervously, momentarily smashing their legs against the side of the building.
A rain of tumbling rubble cascaded down the side of the building, falling squarely in the entrance to the passage. The rubble immediately began to block the way, quickly filling the narrow passage until it was no longer passable.
“That was amazing!” Mathew shouted when he finally found his voice. “What was that pulse of light?”
“It was a laser-guided energy pulse,” Otto replied matter-of-factly, as if what he’d just done had not been so fantastical that it had temporarily shocked Mathew speechless.
Mathew had no idea what that was, but he was certainly glad that Otto was on their side. “What else can you do?”
“Many things,” Otto replied vaguely.
Mathew was going to ask for more detail, but he heard the arrival of the Enforcers on the other side of the rubble. The Enforcers had truly only been moments behind them. If Otto had not acted when he had, then the Enforcers and their mounts would have been crushed in the pile of rubble had Otto fired the pulse but a few seconds later. Realizing how closely they had come to being captured, Mathew’s giddiness at Otto’s feat dissipated a little.
“We should go,” Otto said, seeming to speak Mathew’s own thoughts aloud. “It will take some time, but they will eventually find a way around or over the barricade. And we must be far from here when they do, if you do not wish to be taken.”
“We don’t wish to be taken, Otto, we most certainly do not,” Kara said with feeling.
Otto nodded then resumed his position in the lead, guiding them forward at a fast-paced walk.
At the end of the passage, they exited out onto a road that was so narrow and hazardous that Kara let out a gasp. The road seemed impassable. Large holes littered the narrow surface of the road, looking as if a giant hand had reached down from the sky and pounded a closed fist into the hard surface. Fissures and cracks ran out from each hole, buckling the surface of the road and making the road look treacherous to navigate. On either side of the narrow road, buildings that were so tall they scraped the sky blocked out virtually all light. The dimness would make the road even harder to travel upon.
Mathew looked back the way they had come, thinking that it would certainly have been easier to travel the other wider roads had their pursuers not forced them to flee. This road looked dangerous and impossible to travel.
“Be careful, this is not a safe part of the city. But, just ahead, the Narrow Road leads deeper into the city. Few have sought the Narrow Road, and fewer still have reached the Narrow Gate by it. Many choose the easier roads. As your guide, I have brought you to this place because that is what you wished. The device that we seek, the one that will prevent the chip inside Gallant from relaying his location, is many miles ahead,” Otto announced.
Kara gaped at the giant. “This is the Narrow Road? Which leads to the Narrow Gate? Why did you not tell us that you knew the way?”
The giant turned his head slightly to stare at Mathew with glowing eyes.
“I did not think that Mathew was ready. But, he proved his readiness when he was willing to risk his life for another.”
Mathew wasn’t sure whether he should be relieved, complimented or insulted. Otto had not thought he was ready for the Narrow Road? The giant had not thought that he could do the right thing?
“I understand,” Kara said. “Thank you again, Otto.”
The metal giant nodded.
“ We must go thi…” Otto’s speech seemed to slow down abruptly, then stop altogether before he’d finished speaking.
The metal giant’s mouth hung open, as if he still tried to form words, but the red lights of his eyes dimmed a little.
“Otto, are you alright?” Kara asked, and Mathew could hear the concern in her voice.
Otto did not answer her.
Mathew slid down from the saddle and went to the giant’s side.
“Otto?”
Still no answer. The giant’s eyes dimmed to mere pinpoints of red light.
Suddenly, there was a hissing, clicking sound and a small compartment on Otto’s back popped open. Mathew jumped back, startled.
“What’s wrong with him?” Kara asked as she climbed down from Gallant’s back.
“I don’t know,” Mathew answered, wishing that he did.
Mathew stepped around behind the giant and looked into the small compartment. He could see nothing inside except a recessed rectangular slot.
“Otto?” Kara questioned again. Holding Gallant’s reins with one hand, she used her other to grasp the giant’s wrist, then tried to pull him forward a bit. Otto did not move.
“Come on, Otto, we have to go before the Enforcers find a way through or around that barricade you made,” Mathew urged.
The metal giant did not reply.
Mathew moved back to Kara’s side.
“We can’t leave him here. If the Enforcers get a hold of him, they’ll take him back to the House too. And the Sovereign will probably have him destroyed or try to get him to do bad things. He’s very powerful, when he’s working, and he could do some very bad things if the Sovereign could figure out how to make him do them.”
Kara nodded in agreement. “We can’t let the Enforcers get him. I don’t want him to be hurt. I mean, if a man made of metal can be hurt, that is. He has helped us so much. And he’s honorable and good, and you’re right, he is too powerful to be in the hands of the Sovereign.”
Mathew stood there, staring up at Otto, desperately trying to figure out the right thing to do.
The giant’s eye lights flickered and then went dark.
Chapter Twenty
Mathew reached up and pushed against Otto’s leg, trying to get the metal man to move, just as Kara had done, but it was no use. The giant was very sturdy, and very heavy. They could not move him on their own.
“What if we try to have Gallant pull him?” Kara asked.
After a moment’s thought, Mathew shook his head. “We would need a cart or a rope, and we have neither.”
Kara looked momentarily at a loss.
Mathew knew just how she felt.
Behind them, the Enforcer’s shouts grew louder, as if in triumph. Mathew spun round to stare at the pile of rubble, just in time to see a tracken’s head crest over the top edge. The agile creature struggled over a large piece of debris at the top of the pile, until it stood fully at the top of the mountain of rubble, all four paws planted, its eyes looking straight at them.
The tracken threw it’s head back and gave a yowl of triumph when it spotted them, and Mathew heard an answering cheer from the Enforcers who remained behind the barrier.
Kara gasped in horror as the tracken began to pick its way down the nearer side of the rubble pile, drawing closer. Its progress was slow as it navigated the huge chunks of rock and debris, but it would eventually reach the bottom, and then it would be upon them in no time at all.
Mathew felt panic crawl through his chest. He could not take on a fully-grown tracken and win, and he could not run and leave Otto behind. And he had to protect Kara.
“Get back on Gallant, I have an idea,” he told Kara as he fished the Old Tech his father had left for him from his shirt pocket.
He quickly went to Otto’s back, where the small compartment still lay open, and gently put the Old Tech near the slot.
“It’s the same size,” he told Kara. “It might fit in the slot in this compartment.”
“Hurry, the tracken is nearing the bottom of the pile,” Kara urged.
Mathew inserted the Old Tech into the slot. To his relief, the Old Tech seemed to be a perfect fit, almost as if it had been made to belong inside the metal man.
Mathew pushed it as far in as he could, and when the length of the Old Tech was inserted fully, there was a loud click and the compartment door snapped back closed. Mathew barely had time to jerk his fingers out of the way before it was closed tight again.
Otto’s jaw closed with a loud pop, and his eyes lit again, bright as a burning coal in a too-hot fire.
“…this way,” Otto finished the sentence he had started moments ago.
“What happened to you, Otto?” Kara asked.
The giant was silent a moment, as if taking stock of himself.
“I expended too much power using the pulse. My reserves were depleted. And, since the sun does not reach into the Narrow Road unless it is directly overhead, which occurs for only two hours at mid-day, I was unable to recharge. Mathew’s father’s device will sustain me for a few short hours, but I will need to seek the sun very soon or I will be powerless once again.”
“You use the sun for power, the same as the Old Tech?” Mathew did not know how this was possible, and marveled again at the cleverness of their ancestors. How had such great and clever men managed to destroy the whole world?
“Yes,” Otto nodded, then turned in a swift motion to push Mathew to the ground. A second later, the tracken pounced.
In the rush of relief at getting Otto to be functional again, Mathew had temporarily forgotten about it, and if Otto had not pushed him out of the way, the tracken’s teeth would now be sunk deep into his leg, instead of biting into Otto’s sturdy metal arm.
The beast tore viciously at Otto’s arm with its teeth, but it could do no harm to the hard surface, only managing to tear away some of the loose skin-like substance that hung there.
To Mathew’s surprise, Otto reached out to gently enfold the beast in a firm embrace. The tracken released his arm in order to yowl in rage as the metal giant drew it close, the sound so loud and close that Mathew winced in pain.
Otto held the beast close as it snapped and snarled dangerously near the giant’s face. Carefully, he moved his metal hand up behind the beast’s skull and quickly removed a thin wire that had been hidden from sight, buried deep in the animal’s fur.
The tip of the wire was wet with the beast’s blood.
The tracken immediately stopped snarling and went still, and for a moment Mathew thought that Otto had broken his own rule and killed the animal.
“There now, that’s better, isn’t it?” Otto said, his voice pitched low and gentle, almost as if he were trying to croon to the animal to calm it. “No more pain now.”
The tracken whined once, as if in gratitude, but remained quiescent in Otto’s arms.
Otto set the beast down on the ground in front of him, carefully placing it back on its feet.
Mathew braced himself, preparing for an attack, but the tracken did nothing.
“This is one of the tracken that you have spoken of?” Otto asked.
“Yes, Otto, it is. The Enforcers use the beasts to track for them,” Kara answered when Mathew simply stared at the beast, which was now only two feet away from where he still lay upon the ground.
“The poor beast was being controlled through this device,” Otto held up the blood stained wire. “It was in constant agony. These Enforcers must be truly evil to do this to an innocent beast.”
Kara looked sickened. “And, the Sovereign is said to keep many tracken at the House. They must all be controlled like that.”
“I thought they were just naturally viscous and trained to hunt,” Mathew said, finally daring to get to his feet. He approached the tracken cautiously, but the animal only watched him through large dark eyes.
Carefully, Mathew reached out to touch the animal’s head, marveling at the feel of the beast’s fur beneath his fingers. He would never have imagined that he would ever pet a tracken without drawing back a hand that was missing a few fingers.
“We must go. There is a spot ahead that the sun shines brightly upon at midday. We must reach it before the sun reaches its zenith in the sky, or I will be powerle
ss again by nightfall,” Otto told them as he turned to lead the way down the Narrow Road.
“But, what about the tracken?” Kara asked.
“Perhaps it would like to come with us?” Mathew asked, thinking that a tracken might be a good addition to their little group of orphans. The tracken seemed to agree, butting its head up under his hand as if it wanted to be petted more.
Kara turned Gallant to follow after Otto, and Mathew trailed after them both.
The tracken remained where it was for a few moments, as if confused to have free will for the first time in its lifetime. Then, with a soft whine, it began to follow after Otto, Mathew and the girl on the horse.
Mathew stepped out onto the Narrow Road with trepidation and fear coursing through his body, yet he also felt hope. Although they had a long, hard journey ahead of them if they wished to find the Narrow Gate, he knew, somehow, it would all work out now. They had found the Narrow Road and were on the right track, he was no longer alone, Otto had the Book, and Kara had enough faith for all of them.
Read more about Mathew and Kara in The Sovereign’s Slaves, book two in the Narrow Gate series. Available to order now on Amazon.
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Have you read, AFTER THE FALL, prequel of THE NARROW GATE? It has been included, in its entirety, for your reading enjoyment:
AFTER THE FALL
THE NARROW GATE PREQUEL
By Janean Worth
AFTER THE FALL (prequel in THE NARROW GATE SERIES)
Copyright 2015 by Janean Worth and Author’s Art books
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