Hilari Bell - The Goblin Gate

I T WILL BE DAWN SOON , Jeriah told the priest who rode beside him. If we havent caught them by then, wont we have to rest the horses?

The lessening of darkness through the trees to the east surely signaled the beginning of the end of the worst night of Jeriahs lifeand not only because of the difficulty of keeping his mare from stumbling in the wavering light of moon and torches.

Well catch up with them soon enough, Master Lazur replied. They only had a forty-minute start, and theyve delayed several times, waiting for others to join them.

One of the people they were chasing was Jeriahs brother.

The goblins must have bespelled him. Jeriah had been pursuing this argument all night, whenever he managed to maneuver Glory up beside the priests horse. Just as I was bespelled when I led them to your tent.

Then why didnt his mind and will return to him when he crossed the charmed iron that protected my tent? Master Lazur demanded. As yours did.

Maybe the spell on him was different. Deeper, or on him longer. Or maybe he was drugged! Tobin led you to the goblin village just a few days ago. Why would he help us find the goblins and capture the sorceress, and then help them escape?

Ill ask Tobin that, said the priest. And if he was acting under compulsion, no harm will come to him. But first we have to catch them.

The priest urged his horse forward to speak to the chief tracker, though the man hadnt signaled that hed seen anything new. If Tobin hadnt been bespelled or drugged, he would probably hang. Or was it a hanging offense to help a murderess escape the churchs custody if you hadnt killed anyone yourself?

Jeriah feared he was going to find out, because no matter what hed told the priest, he didnt believe Tobin had been bespelled. Not bespelled, or drugged, or even smitten silly by the sorceress remarkable beauty.

Hed acted too swiftly, too intelligently on that lightning raid to steal Master Lazurs booksand what in two worlds had he wanted the priests spell books for?

He hadnt said. With Jeriah bound and gagged at his feet, Tobin hadnt said anything that mattered except that hed explain someday. A lot of good that did! His brother would be explaining to a judge if they were caught.

And they probably would be caught. Jeriah had tried to delay them, but Master Lazur had been watching. If hed done anything too conspicuous, the priest would have left him behind. One of the knights of legend might have managed it, but Jeriah had found that stopping a troop of armed soldiers, when you yourself had only a horse and a sword, wasnt possible in the real world.

His subtle attempts to delay the troops departure, and the tracks hed managed to scuff over by accident, hadnt done anything but draw so much of the priests attention he hadnt dared do anything more. He had to be present when they caught up with Tobinthat would be his best chance.

The trees were thinning, and glow from the brightening horizon began to dim the moonlight. The troop picked up its pace, trotting now, despite the horses weariness. If Tobin could stay ahead of them for just a little longer, theyd have to stop to rest their horses. But the sky was growing lighterin the south? What

Master Lazur shouted, urging his horse to a canter, and the rest of the troop followed.

Glory began to canter too, without even a touch of Jeriahs heels, and he kept his eyes on the growing light ahead of them. Blue-white, not at all like the thinning gray to the east where the sun would soon rise.

Magic. The sorceress must be casting some spell, and the back of Jeriahs neck prickled with primitive fear.

He urged Glory to a gallop, cutting through the rest of the troop. Master Lazur cast him a wary glance as Jeriah pushed past him, but Jeriah hardly noticed. The trees were thinning.

Then he saw her. The great wall that divided the Goblin Wood from the rest of the Realm stretched out over the low hills, glimmering silver in the moonlight. The ragged gap where the road broke through was filled with a glowing sheet of light, which rippled and shifted as if tossed by a wind he couldnt feel.

The sorceress stood in the center of the gap, and those same currents set her dark hair swirling about her. Her back was to Jeriah, and beyond her

Goblins streamed toward the gap, dozens, hundreds of small bodies, so many they might even have been able to overcome the priests troop. But when they reached the light, they vanished.

Jeriah didnt care if all the goblins in the Realm escapedhed just seen Tobin, standing on the far side of that shimmering curtain. He tapped Glorys ribs with his heels and she thundered down the road. The sorceress would be gone by the time he got there, but that didnt matter either.

If he could just reach Tobin before the rest of the troop, tell him to say hed been drugged and bespelled! Tell him to lie. Tobin was a terrible liar. Tell him to act drugged, confused, and let Jeriah do the talking. Jeriah would knock Tobin out if he had to, in order to handle those first critical minutes of questioning.

The flood of goblins into the light had slowed; the last of them would soon be gone.

The sorceress bent to pick up a packthe pack that held Master Lazurs spell books. Soon she too would step through the gap, taking that alarming spell with her, and all he had to do was reach Tobin before

The sorceress turned toward the light and disappeared. Jeriah was close enough now to see the expression on his brothers face shift from grief to decision. And when Tobin decided, action followed. Jeriah cried out then, a wordless shout of protest, warning, but it did no good.

Tobin took three running strides, plunged into the fading light, and vanished.

The glowing field wavered and blinked out, just seconds before Glory plunged through the place where it had been. Jeriah dragged her around to look back. Arcane symbols covered the shattered gap in the wall, but not even a flicker of light remained. No sign of his brother. Nothing but the dawn breeze rushing through the ragged stones, and the thud of slowing hoofbeats as the troop drew near.

Tobin! Even as the scream burst from his throat, Jeriah knew it was useless.

He glared at Master Lazur when the priest rode forward. The rest of the troop stopped before they reached the gap, but the priest rode right through to examine the scrawled signs. Fury warred with respect in his expression. How did she do it?

Jeriah didnt care. Where are they? Wheres my brother!

In the Otherworld. You remember the dimension from which I got the stone we used to locate the goblin camp?

But you said it took half a dozen priests to open a gate to the Otherworldshe was only a hedgewitch! How could she do it?

A very good question. Respect was winning. The priest climbed out of the saddle and laid his hands flat against the stones. Ah, yes.

Ah, yes what? Jeriah demanded impatiently.

The wall is a power sink. I knew thator I would have, if Id been thinking in terms of history. There must have been two hundred years of accumulated power in those stones. No wonder she could do it. How very bold.

Then you can do it too. Open a gate so we can go after them.

Jeriah. The grave sympathy in the priests face turned Jeriahs blood to ice. In the first place, I cant. The girl drained its power when she made the gate. And so large! I didnt know that was possible. In the second placetheyre gone now. The sorceress and her goblins. Your brother rid us of them, as completely as if hed killed them. And he gave his life to do it. Hes a hero, and I shall see he gets full credit. But Im not about to give them a chance to come back.