Land of Shadows (The Legend of the Gate Keeper Book 1) (23 page)

The three friends watched in horror as the beasts went flooding across the path through the brush on the other side. The cats had taken the bait! Sounds of battle and Morcel’s loud continuous taunts could be heard off in the distance. His sacrifice was complete. The warrior would die a warrior.

“No!” Eric screamed as he tried to run off in the same direction. Both Jade and Jacob tackled him before he could even take three steps. “We can’t leave him,” he said as he thrashed wildly to escape their grasps. “He’s going to die!”

Crash
. Jade’s fist slammed down into his face. “That’s right, you stupid farm boy. He
is
going to die!” she screamed as she released yet another right hand. “He sacrificed his life for you. Many have given their lives for you. They sacrifice. They give up all they hold dear in this world, and all you do is question them, you bloody fool.”

Jade was unleashing rights and lefts with almost every word now, held-in frustration released like a river. “You never once—not once—honored their sacrifices. Every single person in the world has more faith in you than you.” She got in one more right-hand punch before Jacob was able to finally pull her off.

Eric was a bloody mess at that point. Jacob had to hoist him up while putting one arm over his shoulder so they could move quickly and get out of this area.

Jade grabbed all the bags, and they were off as fast as they could move.

Eric simply had to shake off the cobwebs from the pummeling he received. After fifty feet or so he was able to move on his own.

Jade led the way, not looking back a single time.

They marched on for several hours before stopping again. It was now closer to morning than the middle of the night. On one hand, pressing on would have allowed even more distance between themselves and the incident, but they were completely exhausted and simply needed to stop.

Jade lay down immediately, not saying a word to either of them.

Jacob and Eric stayed up for a bit longer, each chewing a piece of jerky. It was hard to tell the time of morning, given that the light never seemed to change much.

“I’ve never seen her that mad,” said Eric as he used some of the water from one of the skins to wipe dry blood from his face. His eye was swollen, and he had many welts on his forehead. “It’s possible she’ll never speak to me again.”

Jacob said nothing, merely took another bite of jerky, staring off into the distance.

The air finally started to feel a bit cooler, which was a welcome change. There was no breeze, however, which would have been better. The eerie silence remained. This was the first time they wondered if the total lack of nature’s songs would affect their sanity. It was just so unnatural. They sprawled down on the ground, trying not to think about it, not to think of any of it, but it was no use, as Morcel’s face drifted through their thoughts. There were no comforting dreams for anyone.

After a few hours’ rest filled with unsettling images dancing through their thoughts, it was time to move yet again. They repacked the bags with the little they had taken out and set off once more.

Jade took position at the front without saying a word. The boys fell back a bit to give her some space. She didn’t seem any less angry than before, and they saw no reason to make it worse.

Eric and Jacob continued on in complete silence, keeping watch in all directions, not trusting this forest one bit.

The routine stayed intact for the next two days straight. They would stop a few times a day just to rest while Jade generally swiped a sack full of rations and slipped away to lean against the nearest tree. Jacob would still sit with Eric, but it was always silent, as their unspoken thoughts and worries remained so. Even though they hadn’t known Morcel that long, they had considered him a friend. The fact that he had given his life for a cause not of his own haunted everyone—especially Eric, who continued to replay Jade’s words in his head. He knew she was right, of course. Many had sacrificed themselves for him, and all he did was question their motives. The truth in her words seared through him like fire. His guilt became a close a companion.

The evening camps were no different than the daily breaks that had become more and more frequent. Jade would sit alone against a nearby tree while the two boys sat together and ate quietly. Jacob wanted so badly to try and reassure his friend, to tell him everything was going to be fine; that Jade would snap out of this soon and it would be like nothing had ever happened. But as positive as Jacob was nearly all the time, he just couldn’t do it. He could see no silver lining here. Jacob could always brighten a room with his wit and flashy smile, which rubbed off on those around him. This, however, was just different. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t sure everything was going to be fine. He started to feel more like Eric had rubbed off on him.

The general mood had reached its lowest point. The boys no longer walked side by side. Jacob took up the rear. Everyone wanted their own space as the seemingly hopeless journey continued.

Eric had finally come to a decision. He walked faster to share space with Jade. They needed to talk. He walked beside her for a time, but she looked the other way, trying to pretend he wasn’t there. She never so much as looked at him, but didn’t chase him off either.

“How much longer is this going to continue?” Eric mumbled, looking everywhere but at her. She finally spared him a glance as they continued down the leaf-covered path. “Look, I don’t know what happened back there. I didn’t want him to give up his life so recklessly for a cause not of his own. But he made a choice, and whether or not I agree with it,
he
made it!”

Eric aggressively grabbed Jade by the shoulder and spun her around so they were face to face. He saw the startled look in her eyes, but he continued anyway. This needed to be said. “He made a choice. I never had that luxury. My life was once normal and good. I had a father.” He winced even as the words came out. “I never wanted any of this. It was forced on me!”

He began shaking her as anger flooded through him. “And you—you had even less of a choice. Taken away as a baby with no memory of ever being loved. Forced to train like a savage every single day for a cause you never even bothered to question. Whipped like a dog! Did you think I didn’t see the scars on your back that you’ve been trying to hide all this time?”

He stopped shaking her as the blind rage subsided. Just now he seemed to realize for the first time what he had been saying, had been doing. He jerked his hands away as if Jade were made of hot coals. By then Jacob had run up and tried to step in between them. Eric stared at his own hands in disbelief, as if they had acted on their own.

Forcing himself to look up at Jade was nearly unbearable. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Disbelief and pain filled her eyes. He wished he could crawl into a hole after cutting her so deep. “Jade,” he said as his own eyes began to tear up. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

Thsssssssssp
. A sharp pain ran up the side of Eric’s neck. When he instinctively reached with his hand, he pulled out a small dart with two blue feathers attached. His eyes grew wide with panic as he screamed for everyone to run. Three steps were as far as he got before collapsing to his knees. He tried hard to clear his head as it began to fog up, to force his failing body to respond.

His heart sank as the other two fell to their knees right next to him, each with a similar dart protruding from their necks. As the forest began to spin around him, Eric’s final thoughts were of his treatment of Jade, how those very well may be the last words he would ever say to her. That fleeting thought filled him with more pain and horror than the possibility of his own demise—a fate he now felt he deserved—as the jungle faded into blackness.

* * *

Eric slowly began to open his eyes. His head felt light and fuzzy as he shook it back and forth. His first impulse was to close his eyes again and go back to sleep. The last memory before losing consciousness flooded back to him as soon as he realized he couldn’t move his arms. Now fully remembering everything, he thrashed while trying to clear his head at the same time.
Stop panicking. Just figure out where you are and what’s going on
. He stopped thrashing and took a deep breath, scanning his surroundings.

The black walls seemed to be made of some sort of dark stone cut into perfect rectangle bricks and layered with mortar, as far as he could tell. The bare walls held no pictures or decorations of any kind that he could see. There was not even a single bit of furniture in the plain room. There were, however, two open windows that allowed a subtle cross breeze. Hot air moving felt better than hot air standing still, if only by a little.

The floor consisted of wooden planks that were sanded smooth, but had no stain or finish of any kind. The rickety door looked to be made of bamboo shoots tied together by some kind of fibrous yellow vines. As his eyes gazed up, he could see the roof looked much like the door, bamboo tied together with the same yellow plants. His feet were bound together with the same vine, while his hands were tied behind a thick wooden post. The knots were tight. He twisted his wrists back and forth to try and loosen them.

The door swung open and a tall figure entered the room. Eric’s blood froze as the strong scent of spices filled the room. The bare-breasted woman that came in was about six feet tall. Her skin was mostly light, with several dark patches that looked to be rough and scaly. The woman had thin, white hair and was covered in shiny gold jewelry. Three large gold hoops pierced each ear, and two smaller ones graced each of her nipples. Gold and silver chains of various lengths fell around her neck. A combination of silver and gold loops ran up each arm as well. The small gold hoop in her left nostril seemed subtle when compared to the other gaudy jewelry that seemed to cover her from head to toe.

“I know exactly what you are,” Eric hissed as he began to thrash again, pulling hard on the twine ropes. “My friends and I have gone through hell just to stand before you. Where are they? What have you done to them?”

The woman’s bright yellow eyes remained fixed on him. She tilted her head to the side, looking quite amused, and smiled wickedly. She took another step towards him before sidestepping to expose the doorway.

Jade had been standing behind her the whole time.

Eric’s eyes grew wide, not knowing what to make of this. His companion stepped through the doorway with a blank look and turned to the woman. “Ericando tres toora beropa,” she said, gesturing towards the doorway.

The tall woman glided gracefully back the way she came. She turned to Eric one last time before leaving. “You sssay you know what I am,” she said in a light, youthful voice that sounded odd coming from the large woman. “Who or what I am is not important. We shall ssssssoon see who or what
you
are...Eric Aethello.”

The woman strolled from the room without a second glance.

Chapter 15

Addel awoke from her pain-induced coma. Never had she experienced such a thing in her life. Her body ached, and her head swam in a pool of clouds. When she tried to rise, her stomach emptied itself onto the floor. Falling back onto her dingy mattress as the room spun like a top, she felt as if she had been drinking for a week. Trying to get to her feet no longer seemed like such a good idea, as simply sitting up was challenge enough. But to her relief, her head seemed to be clearing quickly even as she lay there.

What did that beast do to me
?
What “gift” was he talking about
?

Her door blasted open so hard, it nearly flew off its hinges. Dragot stormed into the room, towering over her like a tree dwarfing a bush. “How are you feeling?” he boomed in a rush that seemed very uncharacteristic of the calm demon.

The truth was, she was starting to feel much better. She’d been on death’s door a minute ago, but now she felt better than she had in a long time.
What did he do to me
?

“Well, regardless of how you feel, you need to come with me right now,” the demon said, and reached down with a clawed hand to grab her.

“I can walk, serpent!” she screeched as she pulled away from his attempt.

“No doubt you can, and will,” he said, once again speaking in his usual patient voice. “That is, after receiving Krytoes’s gift, I’m sure there are a great many things you can do well. Come, follow me.”

He led on as she followed him to his private chamber. Never had she stepped inside this room before, but she could feel its powerful magic quite easily. The way the walls continued to bleed seemed to bring the chamber to life.

“You now have both the power and the proper facilities to do as I command,” said Dragot, starting to sound impatient once again. “I will need two separate gateways, each leading to a separate location, by tomorrow. They must be able to transport a large number of people at once.” Addel began to protest once again, but he cut her off instead. “You now have the power to accomplish this.”

He began pacing back and forth as he spoke. “It seems the man-child has made contact with the crytons. No doubt they will perform their ‘ritual’ to see if his claims are true. This cannot happen!” he boomed as he turned to leave.

Addel stared at his back, half in shock. Eric was in contact with the crytons? She was fully aware of their existence, but didn’t think he would ever get this far.
To have actually found them
! No wonder Dragot was so nervous.

He turned back towards her once more. “We will attack Taron
and
the dead forest at the same time.” With that, he stormed away.

If she was half in shock before, it was complete now.
He’s insane
.

* * *

Eric sneered at Jade as she began to untie him. “Well, at least you’re going to untie me, I guess that’s something at least.” He continued staring at her coldly. She rolled her eyes at him while tugging at the knot around his feet.

“So I guess these crytons are your buddies now, huh?” he said without so much as blinking.

“They knocked me out too, you idiot.” she shot back at him as she disappeared behind the wooden post to free his hands. “What were their scouts supposed to do? As far as we know, they haven’t seen humans in a very long time. Besides, in case you didn’t notice, they honored my request to speak to you alone. That should count for something. They could have killed us if they chose to,” she grumbled as she loosened the final knot, pulling a bit harder than might have been necessary. “Maybe one of us would have sensed their presence if you hadn’t been—” she quickly averted her eyes and stopped suddenly in mid-sentence.

A jolt of pain stabbed through Eric’s heart as he remembered once again the line he had crossed. “Jade,” he said softly, gingerly getting to his feet. After stalling for a while, she finally looked him in the eye. “I’m so sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean any of it.” He ran his fingers through his thick, curly hair as he turned to face the wall, having a hard time seeing the pain in her eyes.
The pain he had caused
. “It was just that...I felt so helpless.”

She lifted one eyebrow as he continued.

“I mean, you’re my guide. You’re supposed to tell me where to go, what to do, how to do it. When you stopped speaking to me, I was lost. Lost without my guide...my
guardian
...my friend. I had no idea what to do.” This time, he walked right over to her.

She jumped a bit from the aggressive movement.

“I know I let you down,” he said in a low whisper. “I don’t ever want to feel like that again. Like...like I’ve hurt you, betrayed you.” His voice started to gain strength again. “But we’re here now. Thanks to you and Morcel’s ultimate sacrifice, we made it,” He moved even closer and placed his hand on her shoulder. “I need you now more than ever.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for some time before Jade cleared her throat and looked away. “Follow me,” she said, wearing a lopsided smile. “We’re not done yet, we have work to do.”

The two walked out of the black brick hut and onto a light dirt walkway sprinkled with gravel here and there. Most of the compact buildings looked very much the same: almost perfect squares with bamboo doors and roofs.

Crytons walked the dirt paths that crisscrossed between the buildings. They were large folk, covered with gold and silver jewelry. Some of the men were close to seven feet tall. Although each face was slightly different, the one constant feature was those bright yellow eyes. Although they stared as if Jade and Eric were on fire, they showed no signs of panic or distress. Word had clearly gotten out that humans roamed the village.

“They must have used a larger dose on you or something,” Jade sneered as they trudged on. “Jacob and I have been up for some time. They didn’t mistreat us or anything. When we woke up, they simply untied us and started asking questions. I think that’s mostly because they don’t fear us. The high priestess allowed me to explain what brought us here in the first place. The funny thing was she sort of already knew. There are crytons here that have abilities similar to those of Berkeni’s. She even knew about the puppeteers! We know nothing of their world, yet they have kept a close watch on ours for some time.”

“Is that where we’re going right now? To see this high priestess?” Eric asked, trying his best to take all this in.

“Well, yes, but you’ve already met her.”

“That woman I saw when I first woke up. Of course,” he said, watching the dark-skinned people staring a hole through him as they marched along. Almost all had little to no hair, but it was still plenty easy to tell the women from the men. They all seemed to be wearing some sort of jewelry. Nose and earrings seemed to be standard amongst everyone, male or female. Some even had light chains flowing from their nose to pierced parts of their faces, but not in the amount worn by that tall woman, who had been completely covered.

“How did you learn to speak their language?” Eric asked suddenly, not taking his eyes from the path, distracted by the many intense stares.

“I speak several languages,” Jade shrugged, as if the question seemed moot to her. “But I don’t speak any fluently, just enough to get by and communicate. Keep in mind, crytons and humans used to be allies. Their language has been well documented for many years. But in this case, it turns out the high priestess speaks Common far better than I speak Cryton.”

Children were now starting to show themselves, peeking from doorways, smiling and waving, all the while whistling for their siblings to come look.

Eric smiled and waved back as a simple truth occurred to him. Blind fear and prejudice was always developed later in life, whereas children were all the same no matter their race or culture. When they saw someone who looked different than they, it triggered feelings of curiosity, not fear or distrust. They would learn to hate later in life, when they were shown to do so. He shook his head at the sad reality.

Eric had to rub his eyes several times as they turned the corner. A building made of the same black stone as the others lay in their path, but it was much larger. Pearl-white steps led up to the dark wooden door, which really stood out against the rest of the large, dark building. The roof was made of white tile instead of the bamboo used on the others.

They marched up the handful of stone steps. Jade opened the door and led the way in.

The inside was nothing like the room Eric had been in earlier. Ornate oil paintings hung about the spacious white-walled room. Scenes of odd rituals being performed seemed to be the theme for most of these paintings. One such piece showed several crytons joining hands around a woman with long white hair. Her own hands were stretched to the sky, as if she was performing some sort of magic, or possibly even praying. But what really stood out were the frames that held these paintings: They were all made of polished white bone. As to who or what supplied the bone, Eric had no intention of asking.

In fact, almost every item in the room appeared to be made of bone, including the table and four chairs that surrounded it. The crytons had somehow fused the bones together to form some rather solid-looking furniture. Even the clock on a wooden mantle against the wall was encased in a bone shell, revealing the glass face surrounded with symbols that looked like gibberish to Eric.

The aromas of cooking food filled the air as they entered the second room.

The high priestess remained seated at a large table made entirely of the same white polished bone.

Jacob appeared a little too comfortable as he leaned back in his skeletal throne, rubbing his fingers across the armrest. Both he and the priestess smiled as the two others entered. “It’s about time you woke up,” said Jacob arrogantly as he leaned back even farther. “I was thinking we would have to start without you.”

The tall woman stood and flourished into a perfect, eloquent bow. “I am Shantisss Sssondere, High Priestess of the crytonssss,” she said as she raised her yellow eyes with purpose towards Eric. “Or the undead, as sssome of your kind refer to ussss.”

Eric squirmed a bit at that last comment but held her gaze nonetheless.

“Pleassse have a ssseat, both of you,” she said, gesturing gracefully to the open seats. She clapped her hands twice and a handful of servers entered the room, each holding covered silver trays which they began to place around the table.

Eric had no idea how Jacob could be so relaxed right now, and he found himself wishing some of that would rub off on him. Sure, they knew what they’d been looking for, that the crytons existed, and even what they looked like. But now that he was sitting at the table with the high priestess, the whole thing seemed so surreal.
How does he do it
?

The servers began uncovering the trays, revealing different types of meats and stews along with brightly colored vegetables. Shiny, silver goblets with tiny, colored jewels encrusted around the rims were set in front of each person.

“Now then, Eric Aethello,” Shantis said as she raised the water cup to her lips. “Try to help me underssstand why I’m to believe
you
are the Gate Keeper.”

Eric’s blood chilled at the directness of her question.

“What I’m sssaying is, over the last ten years we have had sssseven humans sssstumble across our private existence and claim to be the Gate Keeper. Sssseven times we have performed the ancient ritual to see if his claims were true.” She took a long gulp of water as the servants filled everyone’s plates with healthy portions. She was so nonchalant about the subject, it seemed as if she were talking about the weather.

“Wait a minute,” said Jade, cutting off Eric before he could voice his obvious concern. “Seven people have already made the same claim? What happened to those seven?”

“Why, they died, of course,” Shantis stated, sounding almost bored. “Only the Gate Keeper could actually sssssurvive the trials. They obviously...were not him.”

The sudden reality smacked Eric right in the face. This is why they weren’t that spooked by humans walking the streets. They had seen them several times before. They were perfectly aware of the prophecies; this much was true, but they had been through this enough times already to have more than enough suspicion of yet another human making the same claim. Their doubts had sprung from several counterfeits showing up before he did.

“Sssso I ask you again, Eric Aethello, why am I to believe
you
are the one?” A spark began to burn inside him, which only seemed to gain heat with every passing second. He stood up as Jacob slid his chair back at the same time. Jacob was starting to recognize that look and wanted to be ready in case things escalated.

“I can’t think of a single reason, Priestess,” Eric said in a soft, dangerous growl. “Because I sure wasn’t him when I was blacksmithing in my hometown of Bryer, nor when I watched people I had known my entire life die before my very eyes. I wasn’t him when the only father I had ever known told me I wasn’t really his son as he slammed the door in my face.”

The tiny spark became a roaring forest fire as it burned deep within his chest. The fire flared in his eyes as his deep voice boomed through the chamber. “I wasn’t him when the only life I had ever known was stolen from me. I denied it every step of the way!” Then his voice softened back into a deadly hiss. He took three steps towards her. “Make no mistake, Shantis Sondere, High Priestess of the crytons. I would take your life where you stand for it
not
to be true.”