Keystone (Gatewalkers) (15 page)

The mage’s thoughts played across his face. If Rhys was so eager to save time, he might insist on a higher price, but if Rhys decided to save the money and take a boat, and then go overland, the mage guild lost their fare entirely.
 

The man ran an ink-stained finger across his lips. “One twenty.”

The price was still high, but the gate would be opening for only one man. “Done.”

The mage marked the price in his ledger as Rhys counted out the coin.

Rhys hesitated before handing over the fare. “Before the end of the day, there may be a woman who comes looking for me. If she does, send her to Cruatan and charge the gate fare to the Alta Mercenary Guild.”

The mage sniffed. “Two hundred.”

Rhys glared at the man, sorely tempted to change his mind for him, but he refrained. “Done.”

Surprise flickered across the man’s face, but he covered it and made another notation in his ledger. “A pleasure doing business with you.”

***

At Rosethorn Manor, Charlie rifled through wardrobes, cabinets and drawers, coming up with a pack and a spare cloak.
 

She stashed her bloodstained “real world” clothes in the pack, as well as the contents from her pockets. Next she raided the kitchen for non-perishable supplies, finding that most of the foodstuffs in the cabinets consisted of things that would not easily go bad. She packed what she hoped would last her at least a week and also dropped in the aloe that Taryn gave her. It couldn’t hurt.

A small room on the second floor turned out to be devoted to weapons, though there wasn’t a single bow among them. Various racks and wall hooks held almost every kind of blade Charlie could imagine, carefully wrapped and oiled for extended storage. The array seemed heavy on the spears, with a variety lengths and blade styles. One set of hooks on the wall held a creepy naked sabre that seemed to drip blood from the edge, though there was no puddle beneath it. Most of the blades had the look of weaponry meant for action, not display, some with visible damage.

Collected from the battlefield? Charlie wasn’t sure what to think of that idea. Looting in a video game was all well and good, but taking a weapon off of an actual corpse? A little disturbing.

Maybe Rhys was just an avid collector. Who happened to work for a mercenary guild. Yeah. Right.

Charlie picked through the smaller blades until she found a plain knife that fit her grip, and a sheath to hang it from her belt. She wasn’t planning to do any close-fighting, but that didn’t mean it couldn't happen.

Charlie tied up the pack, rigged her quiver to her belt, nudged Tom off her shoulder long enough to put on the cloak, and slung the pack on her back along with her bow in its protective wrap.

“As set as I’m going to get,” she muttered.

Tom made no comment, clinging despondently to her collar. Charlie was beginning to worry about him. He looked greener than usual.

Charlie nudged him with her finger. “Next stop, Taryn’s to pick up Jack, then we’ll be following them.”

Tom nodded, perking up slightly.

***

“What, precisely,
is
your plan?” Jack asked, drawing paraphernalia out of his pack.

They stood among the sandy hills outside Alta, where Jack deemed it safe to work his gate spell.
 

“Tom can tell us which direction they went and about how far,” Charlie said. “So I figure we follow for a day or two, until it would be impractical to send us back. Then catch up.

What little color remained in Tom’s face drained away. “As much as two days?”

“Or less,” Charlie soothed. The pixie’s growing listlessness truly worried her now. They might have to shorten the time span for his sake.

“Yes, yes,” Jack said. “I understand that much. What I do not understand is how we are to find the princess when High King Edouard’s own soldiers have not?”

“We wing it,” Charlie said, unwilling to divulge Rhys’ bloodline.
 

“Are you suggesting that we fly?” Jack seemed intrigued by the idea.

“Is it possible?” Charlie said dubiously.

“Ah,” Jack said, brow furrowing. “Not really. No.”

Jack continued inscribing lines and symbols in the dirt. When he’d scribbled to his satisfaction, he turned to Tom. “Now then, little fellow. Let’s have it. Where is your lady?”

Tom perked up. “They’ve gone a very long way. Rhys must have used a gate.” Tom duplicated Lallia’s air map, indicating a point much further north and to the east, almost on the border of the kingdom.

Jack squinted at the map. “Ah! Cruatan. It’s the central trading city for the north. Yes, I could see why one would start there for a search of the mountains.”

“Can you get us there?” Charlie said. On Tom’s map it looked awfully far away.

Jack shook back his sleeves and made more marks on his diagram. “It’s a stretch, but I traveled there as an apprentice as part of my application for journeyman status. They also have a platform set aside for gate travel, so no worries about materializing in a tree.”

Charlie tried not to think of that sort of possibility.

Jack’s runes began glowing with a soft blue light, and bent themselves into a circular shape, the ground rippling faintly in the middle. Jack happily rubbed his hands together. “Ladies first?”

“You go on,” Charlie said, suddenly nervous. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Jack shrugged, shouldered his pack, and hopped into the circle. Charlie couldn’t help “testing the waters” first. She poked a finger into the ripples and felt… nothing. No temperature difference, no tingling sensations. Nothing but air.
 

Tom tugged on her ear. “It’s all right, Charlie. You’ll be safe.”

Charlie shrugged and stepped into the circle. When her feet didn’t meet the sandy ground she felt a jolt as if she’d missed a stair. Instead her feet met solid stone. The seaside landscape of Alta blurred and rippled, the warm spring air replaced with the sudden bite of winter cold. Jagged mountain peaks brushed with snow towered before her, still distant though their size threatened to eclipse the pale, weak sun.
 

Something jabbed her sharply in the ear.

“Ow!” Charlie started to slap at her ear, but then realized it was Tom clutching it so tightly that it pinched. “What’s the matter?”

“I - ” Tom began, but a hand grasped Charlie’s arm and yanked her aside, out of the path of a team of oxen pulling a wagon that materialized just after she had.

“You must be wary of your surroundings,” Jack chided. “This gate landing is a common one.”

“This is Cruatan?” Charlie said. She’d expected something larger than Alta, since Jack said it was a major trading city. What she saw, clumped together as if huddling against the cold, was a series of earth mounds topped by dark thatch. Smoke rose from the “city” in diffused columns. Though wide, they seemed barely high enough to be dog houses much less a city for people.

Jack smiled enigmatically. “Come,” he said, drawing her to follow the thin column of people and wagons trailing their way along an icy, trampled “road.” It brought them to a ramp carved down into the earth, where a pair of sentries dressed in thick furs guarded a set of wooden gates. The gates were swung open, allowing the travelers into the underground city of Cruatan.

Sinking the city into the ground was a clever sort of natural insulation. Tunnels between “buildings” meant that no one needed to go out into the full bitterness of the cold. It also seemed to mean that the concepts of privacy and personal space did not exist.

The air, smoky and musty, was nonetheless breathable. For being a closed-in space filled with fur-wearing inhabitants both animal and people (she couldn’t say human anymore), it was downright fresh compared to the reek of a few of Alta’s streets. The occasional waft of truly fresh air told Charlie that some sort of air circulation system was in effect – probably magic in nature, letting in air but not cold.

Charlie found herself bounced between fox fur shoulders, deerskin, rabbit, bear fur (which truly reeked, even with the magical air system), white spotted pelts she didn’t recognize, and more (and that was only the people) as Jack led her through several narrow “roads.” Once beyond the areas near the entranceway, all animals disappeared, leaving only foot traffic between the units. The wider building mounds seemed to be common spaces, with family units branching from them on thinner tunnels. Charlie didn’t consider herself claustrophobic, but Cruatan might convert her.

“I can get us put up with the Cruatan mage guild,” Jack said. “I can say I’m here as part of my application for full mage status. Which it is, really.”

“Is that why you were so eager to come?” Charlie said.
 

“No, of course not.” Jack seemed shocked at the idea. “No, no. I’ve… I’ve…” Jack abruptly turned shy. “I’ve always had the sense that I was meant to be part of a grand adventure. What with the…” he lowered his voice, “the not dying.” He flashed her a bright grin. “Then you came along. Wait here,” he said, directing her to a nook in the curve of a “road” where a natural spring had been converted to a pool rimmed with stone wide enough to sit on. “The mage guild is to the left of that crossway. I will return shortly.”

Charlie acknowledged and took a seat on the rim of the pool. She watched Jack disappear.
 

Now that they were here, she felt a little cast adrift. Her plan only took them this far. The road ahead was a frightening blank.

Tom abruptly sat up straight on Charlie’s shoulder, eyes shining bright. “She’s coming! Lallia. She’s coming closer.”

“Coming closer?” Charlie said, twisting to peer through the crowd, following Tom’s intent gaze. “Where?”

Tom quivered. “Coming fast.”

Charlie shifted uneasily. Her little plan was discovered sooner than she’d hoped. “Even if Rhys is coming, we’re not going anywhere,” she said, trying to sound firm. “He can’t make us go back to Alta.” But he could leave them behind again without a pixie to follow.

A familiar pink light streaked out of the dimness. “Tom!” Lallia shrieked, and bowled him straight off of Charlie’s shoulder. They fell into a purple pixie pile.

“Where’s Rhys?” Charlie asked, scanning for his pale figure.

“I snuck away,” Lallia said. The pixies were wrapped in each other’s arms so tightly it was a wonder either could breathe. Lallia paused, then said reluctantly, “I can go back….” But Charlie could tell she loathed the idea.

“No,” Charlie said, resigned. “We’ll work something out.” At least they knew he was here.

The pixies brightened, huge grins lighting their faces. They scampered off, exploring their new surroundings. Leaving Charlie entirely alone in the dimness.

In this section of Cruatan, even those traveling the “roads” were few and far between. Even though Jack told her to stay put, she turned restive quickly. She wasn’t used to having no windows to look out of, and though she knew they weren’t completely underground the tunnel began to feel like just that.

Charlie jumped to her feet. She wouldn’t go far, but she wanted to see what was around her.
Somebody
had to have a window to the outside.

“Trying to sneak up on a vampire,” Rhys’ cool breath fell across the side of Charlie’s neck, “is generally considered to be a bad idea.”

***

An arm snaked around her shoulders, pinning her back against his chest. “One bite,” he said. His dry lips brushed lightly against her skin. “To open the artery here and spill your life blood.”

Adrenaline flared through her gut. Charlie tried to squirm away, yanking at his arm, but it was unyielding as stone. “You wouldn’t,” she said, though her pounding heart believed otherwise.

“Would I not? There is no one in this world to care if you died.” His fangs pressed against her neck, but did not break the skin.

Her heart stuttered. “I think you would care,” she said quickly. Convincing him or herself? Maybe both. He wouldn’t have saved her from the other vampire just to chew on her neck now. Besides, he contracted with her to save the princess. And then there was what he’d said at the guild. “You aren’t a cold blooded killer, remember? You’re not going to start with me.”

His fangs left her neck, but he didn’t let go.

She took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “I am
not
staying behind like some… some… wilting wallflower, pining away waiting for you to bring back the Keystone someday so I can finally go home. If you ever came back at all. I would
rather
get hurt than sit around doing
nothing
in a world that isn’t mine, knowing there is nothing I can do to get back to my family.”

Rhys’ hand tightened slightly, almost an involuntary twitch. For a long moment he said nothing. “You would risk your life for the sake of returning to your family.” His voice was neutral.

Charlie glanced down, at the contract encircling his wrist, glistening as if the ink were still fresh. “Aren’t you?”

Rhys released her so abruptly that Charlie nearly lost her balance. She spun to face him. He regarded her coldly from beneath his hood.

“This is not for the sake of Seinne Sonne’s royal blood,” he said through gritted teeth.
 

“Why then?” Charlie challenged, lifting her chin.

Rhys let out a low hiss. “Because every time I close my eyes I see her face. Maelyn. If she is alive, as you believe, then I cannot abandon her.”

He didn’t believe it himself, Charlie realized. He thought she was dead. But he must want to believe otherwise, or else he wouldn’t be here. “We’ll find her,” Charlie said gently. “It makes sense to keep her alive as a hostage.”

“Perhaps,” Rhys said slowly, but she could tell he would not believe until they found the princess alive and well. Or otherwise.

“Come on,” Charlie said. “Let’s go find Jack. I’ll introduce you.”

“Jack?” Rhys said.

“You didn’t think I got here on my own, did you?” Charlie said. “Jack gated us here. He’s off getting us a place to stay for the night.”

“’Us?’ You brought the pixies with you?” Rhys rubbed his forehead, hiding his eyes. “I should have known you wouldn’t leave the pests behind.”