Gatekeeper
ASH
After sending the excess of our horses back to the castle with Doren, the last living soldier of our cavalry, Laksha told me of a shortcut we should take beneath Marrow Hill.
Despite the heavily voiced misgivings of my comrades, I decided to trust Laksha when he spoke about a trail located beneath the Great Falls that would lead us beyond Kelpie Territory and made the call. Now, we have been traveling for hours, yet I remain steadfast in my decision to allow him guide us. For any ride taken without our having to encounter those loathsome creatures is a ride well taken.
The drip, drip, drop of the water from up above onto the crystalline rocks of this cave we have been trespassing within echoes like the beginnings of a symphony. Especially after being met with the harmonic cacophony of our horses’ footsteps. They clack in tandem and the water taunts in reply.
Laksha swears his ilk only uses this path beneath the falls to reach the Marrow Woods, promising we would not be set upon by any creature that wasn’t his likeness. Oddly though, he bade us remain as silent as possible. A warning I found mildly troubling, but not nearly as stressful as a kelpie attack.
Kelpies are lethal shifters of the flesh and much like water sprites, they hunger for the meat of mortals and fae alike. Happening upon one was to be at the very top of our list of troubles, should it occur. Why? Because unlike hobgoblins and other unallied fae, kelpies can possess a good deal of high magic and should snare you and succeed at heaving you toward the bottom of the lagoon or riverbed, they’ll not only eat you, but they will drain you of your lifeforce and magic.
Suddenly Laksha comes to a halt as a ghastly neigh trembles the rock beyond.
“Oh… shit,” Finn breathes behind me.
Laksha circles upon his steed, stopping just next to me to whisper, “Through the dark, beneath the spray. We must race now or magic, pay!”
“Do what?” I snap, magic pulsing in my hands.
Laksha turns to face the infinite dark as a sudden breeze carries another neigh upon the wind. His hisses, “Gatekeeper.”
“Gatekeeper? Fuck,” Dionie grumbles, drawing his sword.
Another echoes in the dark behind me, a shriek of metal telling me that Finn follows suit.
Laksha whispers, “He comes at night and never day. At night me never rides this way.”
“Well, that might have been a nice piece of information to have before we walked into our very own tombs, now don’t you think?” Finn gripes and I send him a withering glare.
Returning my gaze to Laksha, I say, “Better one than two. There is only… one, correct?”
Laksha eyes me carefully then hisses almost too quietly, “If he is hidden, he is true. He will smell her. Smell her on you.”
Hidden?
“Are you saying what I think you are saying?” I murmur out the side of my mouth as another neigh, this one much louder, bounces past.
“Aye, I am. If our queen he seeks. With her on you, mayhap, he speaks.”
“I am going to off myself,” Finn growls out.
“No need to damn yourself,” I retort. “Because if you don’t shut the fuck up, I will kill you myself.”
Laksha moves closer, “I don’t like him, heart so gray. Watch him, watch him, he will betray.”
My gaze narrows, but I don’t respond. Not because I disagree, more so because I feel the truth in it.
With a nod at Laksha, I ready my magic, feeling it thrum in my veins like a charged storm. “I will lead from here on out.” I turn toward Dionie and mouth, “Guard him.”
The look Dionie grants me is one of utter confusion, but still he allows me a barely perceptible nod.
“Get behind me Laksha,” I command, allowing the power of my voice to carry forward toward the exit of this depressing cavern.
What was once a ghastly whinny, now becomes a high pitched chuckle and the voice that floats in my direction is one that I once knew well.
“Ash,” the creature says somewhere in the deep of the dark ahead of us.
It almost fools me.
Almost has me calling out to him.
But I already know the creature ahead of us has drawn all that he was able from the magic of my voice and the form we shall meet of him, will not be true.
This gatekeeper has shifted into someone he thinks I will not kill. Someone he and I both know is already dead. It is a common ploy that kelpies’ are wont to use most often.
He has shifted into my father.
And I mean to have his head for it.
Damn the bastard.
I face the others and say, “No matter whom you see at the end of this tunnel, you remember the truth of it. The man this creature portrays has been gone a long, long time.” Then without wasting another breath, I draw my sword and scream, “Charge!”