Dawn (5 page)

They crossed to the far edge of town, up a well-traveled road and briefly into the woods before they came across the citadel, a massive stone structure soaring easily five stories overhead with towers in the corners, even higher yet. The entire structure was intricately carved with petroglyphs of bygone ages along with statues and bas-relief engravings covering every square inch of it.

“
That is amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it,” remarked Dawn with a sense of awe. She approached the wall and reached out timidly, “Is it okay if I touch it?”

Maria laughed, “By all means. It has stood since the time of the ancients, I think it can survive you.”

Dawn ran her hand over the reliefs as she marveled at the craftsmanship and artistry involved. Everything was so smoothly cut and made perfect use of the natural grain of the stone. Dawn’s mind raced as she looked it over and over again, “Is this for real?”

“
Yes, indeed. Why do you ask?”

“
There are no seams. No seams
anywhere
.”

Maria’s eyes brightened. “You have very sharp eyes, Dawn, most people don’t catch that. Yes, indeed, the entire citadel is carved from a single piece of stone, natural to where it lies.” She paused as she wrangled Heather back over to them; the youngster had wandered a bit chasing an elusive butterfly. “We don’t know how they carved it, but they did a fantastic job. So, now that you’ve noticed that, what else is remarkable about it? Think hard, girl.”

Dawn looked over and over the structure from top to bottom, from its tall spires to its intricate filigree. “Um, it’s not weathered. There isn’t even bird poop on it.”

Maria laughed, “Excellent! Fascinating, isn’t it? Two thousand years old at the absolute minimum, most likely ten to twelve thousand years, and yet it looks like it was carved yesterday.”

Dawn was more than a little perplexed, “How is that possible?”

“
How do the wormholes work?”

Dawn laughed, “I have no idea. None at all.”

Maria grinned back, “Same thing, no one has a good idea at all. There are twenty-three citadels like this across the Highlands and maybe fifty or so smaller ones. And no one has a good idea how they work. If you get bored, maybe you can figure it out.”

Dawn laughed. “There have been people a lot smarter than me look into them, I’m sure.”

“
Are you now?” asked Maria with a smile. “And were they as inherently curious as you?”

“
I’m just a little girl, Maria.”

“
No, Dawn. You are a fourteen: you are a young woman. And you are going places. But for now, let’s go see what is up with the gate and see if I can help this time or not. Or if maybe you can.”

“
Me?” asked Dawn suddenly very nervous.

“
Why not? You can understand the growl of a Silver, you can probably hear the gates too.”

Suddenly Dawn was very nervous, “What if I mess something up?”

“
Then I’ll fix it,” replied Maria with a motherly smile. “Come on, let’s meet the gatekeeper and see what is up, at the very least.”

Dawn suddenly had more than her fair share of butterflies in her stomach and she could feel her fur start to stand on end, but she followed Maria and little Heather dutifully. They crossed the front of the structure and approached a small door at the side that opened as they approached. Out stepped an elderly Highlander, silver graced the tips of his fur and his tail needed a good combing but he wore a smile that almost seemed to quell the fear lurking inside of her.

“
Good morning, Maria! Oh, and little Heather too! So is this Dawn that I’ve heard about?” asked the old man cheerfully.

Maria smiled broadly, “Good morning, Allrich. Yes indeed. Allrich, this is Dawn. Dawn, this is Allrich. He keeps the gate keys and mans the lanterns.”

“
Eh, most of the time I’m just here to make sure people take the right door,” laughed Allrich. “The lamps all but run themselves. Heck, this whole place all but runs itself. Except for today…”

“
One of the gates closing?” asked Maria.

“
Has closed, and doesn’t seem to want to open either direction. It’s to Lost Lake Pass, so it doesn’t get much traffic day to day, but it gets a lot of traffic on market days.”

“
And market days are coming up tomorrow,” finished Maria.

“
Exactly!”

Maria let out a short breath, “Okay, I’m willing to give this a try. I’ve only done this twice before. Center one, far side. Yes?”

“
And I’ve
never
done it,” beamed Allrich. “Yep, it’s the center one in the second room. Come on, I’ll go with you.”

Dawn followed Allrich and Maria as they approached the front gates of the citadel itself. As they approached, the massive stone doors swung open to reveal a long inner hall. The insides were easily carved as much as the exterior. Floor to ceiling, everything was decorated.

“
Do the other ones look like this?” asked Dawn as she gazed around at the carvings.

“
They are all intricately carved, yes. But each one is unique,” replied Allrich.

Dawn stopped and gazed as they passed the first of the gates. They were carved like any other doorway, but she could see long giant rooms through them, which was perplexing as she knew they were on the inside of the outer wall. There was no way a room could fit in the space provided!

“
Weird to look at, aren’t they?” laughed Allrich. “Come look at this one. It is even better.”

They walked down a little further until they saw another gate that opened to an outside scene rather than the inside of another building. She could plainly make out a stone road and bridge over a massive river. A river that was nowhere near them.

“
Where is that?” she asked with a since of wonder.

“
Blackhawk River, it is about four hundred miles away if you go overland. It opened out to one of the smaller gates, rather than a full-sized citadel.”

“
And so that is how people get from one town to the next,” she half asked half stated. “You go four hundred miles just by walking through that threshold.”

“
Pretty amazing when it finally sinks in, isn’t it?” smiled Maria. “You can see why they are so important to commerce and travel.”

“
And why the humans are so fascinated in how they work! Like you said, it is one thing to talk about it. It is amazing to see it!” gawked Dawn with delight.

Allrich smiled, “Go on. We’re in no rush, run through it and back right quick!”

Dawn looked at Maria who smiled back and nodded, so Dawn walked up to the threshold of the gate at touched it. She could feel a breeze on the other side, but nothing else to give it away. With a small amount of trepidation but a far larger dose of curiosity, she stepped over the threshold and found herself standing outside in a light breeze among tall pines. She turned around and made out the small decoratively carved tower with its gate. Through the gate she could plainly see Maria, Heather and Allrich smiling back at her. Four hundred miles! She giggled and walked back through the threshold to the citadel, “That is fantastic!”

Maria smiled back, “So, how does that compare to those starships?”

Dawn grinned, “Well, far faster and quieter, that is for certain! Are there any of these gates that go off planet?”

Allrich shook his head, “Not that we know of. There are several places that
look
like gates that have never opened for anyone, and people suspect they go off world, but no one knows for certain.”

Dawn thought about that a bit, “Is there any reason to think they couldn’t? I mean are there any other examples of something similar that do go off world?”

Maria brightened at that question, “Well, we know that High Silvers can fold home from an arbitrary distance. Llewellyn once folded home from a distance of well over a hundred and fifty light years.”

Dawn was suddenly very curious about her uncle again.
Folded home?
He also did that ‘forest wall’ thing. Uncle was more than a little bit different than the average Highland Taik.

Maria must have been watching the gears turn in Dawn’s head, “Talk to Llewellyn about it sometime. He’d be glad to.”

Dawn mumbled nervously, “Okay, but what about the gate we came here after?”

Maria smiled motherly and laughed, “It’s just down the hall. Come on, follow Allrich.”

Allrich winced as they started down the hall again.

“
Are you okay?” asked Dawn.

Allrich just smiled back, “Years taking their toll. Gotta keep moving, though, or I’ll rust!”

A few yards later they found themselves in the second antechamber. It was carved like the other room and was adorned with several more gates, two of which offered outside scenes. A single framed wall stood bare, however. Smooth black marble filled the gap where a gate was obviously inscribed by the surrounding carving. This must be the problem gate!

Maria smiled as she reeled Heather in again, “Go ahead, Dawn. Touch it and see if you get a response from it.”

Dawn looked nervously back at Maria, “Touch it… it’s not going to suck me in or anything is it?”

Maria laughed, “Nope. Not a chance. Just touch it and see if you can hear anything.”

Suddenly there was a bit of noise back in the front of the gatehouse. Allrich nodded to the ladies, “Sounds like some people coming through the gate. Need to go make sure they end up where they want to be. It can be easy to get turned around if you bounce through several gates on the way to someplace new.” With old bones creaking, he shuffled back down the hall.

Dawn’s respite was short lived. Now she was expected to touch the gate. She had no idea why the thought made her so nervous. She would almost rather run naked through the town right now than touch the gate. Okay, maybe not quite that nervous, but nervous enough! She shuffled closer and closer to the closed gate and reached out with her hand to the bare wall. She wasn’t sure if she was going to be happier if it did or didn’t ‘growl’ at her. At this point, she just wanted it over and to go back and pick up her dresses.

“
Dawn”
came a booming voice inside her skull.

Dawn jumped back and screamed. Three panicked breaths later she yelled to Maria, “It knows my name!”

Maria laughed in spite of herself, “It’s okay, Dawn. It’s okay! That was excellent. Now let’s see…” She was cut short by the sound of yelling down the hall. Heather suddenly snapped to attention and clung tight to Maria.

Dawn meet Maria’s gaze and they all made their way back to the first antechamber. There, to their horror and dismay they found three vicious looking men with swords at the ready bearing down on Allrich. He had his own blade but was looking the worse for wear, not just from age, but from a nasty gash to his leg. The highwaymen spread out to block the exit. One snarled to the others, “Drop the gates so they cannot escape and raise an alarm.” The one closest to the entrance pulled on a long braided rope behind the door and suddenly all the gates closed down and went silent.

“
Stay close, Dawn,” murmured Maria as they started to backpedal. In a shower of blue sparks, an elegant long sword winked into existence in Maria’s hands, and she went to a low defensive posture. Dawn was shocked; she had seen precious little of Live Steel and had never expected Maria to be able to wield it.

“
Whoa, the Auroran can use Live Steel. How good can she be though?” snarled one of the bandits.

“
Don’t get cocky,” suggested one. “She looks like a Second Mother. They will fight with no small amount of zeal. What she lacks in skill, she will try to make up for in pure rage.”

“
Dawn, go back to the gate and open it for us,” whispered Maria.

“
I don’t know how, and I thought they just shut them down!”

“
Try, girl. Try!” came Maria’s reply as they continued to back their way into the second antechamber.

Dawn swallowed hard and ran back down the hall. Fear and desperation for Maria overrode her own apprehension. She ran straight up to the old wall and touched it with both hands. Instantly it was racing through her mind again and all her fur stood on end. Where? Where does the gate open to? Suddenly she felt the gate ask her that same question. She was at a loss; she had no idea where they should go. Lost Lake Pass? Blackhawk River? Would the gate even open to those places since other gates were assigned to them? She screamed in frustration until the only thing left in her mind was the longing for the comfort and strength that Llewellyn had shown during her rescue a few days earlier.

“
Father,”
replied the gate in her skull and then it opened. The whole barbican opened. In a cascade of blue sparks the entire structure disappeared and Dawn found herself standing on an infinite rocky plain with an unfamiliar night sky overhead. Standing on the plain with her were Maria, Heather and Allrich nearby with the three bandits in close proximity. But they were not alone; there in the midst of them all stood Llewellyn. Unconcerned, and calm, he casually looked around at the surroundings.

“
Maria, you should have called for help. I would have been here in a wink,” smiled Llewellyn.

Maria sighed visibly, “I was about thirty seconds out from that. I was hoping to avoid that since I know how much that hurts you.”