The Keys to Paradise, page 11
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Petia crept along the hillside’s edge. She had left Marram tied to a tree downwind, over a mile distant. Petia had watched the two men for nearly five hours, trying to understand what had transpired between them.
It was a strange, bizarre ritual they went through. She watched the stranger guide his horse down the hillside and sit quietly watching whatever Keja was about. She was bemused when Keja drew back his foot and aimed a kick at empty air.
Whatever they did, they had finally given up and made camp. Petia chewed on dried meat from her pouch while sh watched the men being domestic. When they were soundly asleep, she would act.
Keja still had the gold key. Petia had seen it glint in the sunlight. She was determined to have it. For all she had been through, it was small enough compensation.
The moonlight proved enough for her acute night vision to find a quiet path into the campsite. She squatted down and watched the two men’s chests rise and fall. Both slept soundly. The fire burned lower and neither rose to tend it. That was a good sign.
In another half hour, Petia decided to make her move. She stealthily move down the hill toward the men. The stranger slept on one side of the fire, Keja on the other. She went to Keja.
A loud snap made her jump. A limb, burned through, fell into the flames, scattering sparks into the velvet black of the night sky. Both men burst from their blankets and pinned her in seconds. Petia fought with all the skill imparted by her cat nature, but she was no match for such strong men.
Keja locked one of her arms behind her. Petia snarled in pain, then stopped fighting. He would relax; her chance for escape would come if she waited.
‘Look who we have here.’ Keja grinned at Petia.
Giles glanced at Keja. ‘You know the Trans?’
‘You’ve not met, have you? A serving maid from the Leather Cup in Klepht. She tried to steal the key from me once before. The gods alone know how she comes to be here.’ Keja yawned. ‘Let’s tie her up and sort this out in the morning. I’m still tired from my trip. But do watch her. She’s a tough one.’
Giles fetched rope from his pack. The two men tied Petia hand and foot and laid her none too gently near the fire. Keja slipped quickly back to sleep, but Giles lay awake watching. He wondered how this young Trans fitted into the adventure.
Ten
Giles Grimsmate came awake instantly, too many clues assailing his senses. He rolled over to check their prisoner. Gone. Giles jerked erect, grabbed at his weapons, and yelled at Keja, ‘She’s escaped!’
‘Yes, I have.’ Giles spun about, feet tangling in his blanket. Petia squatted on the opposite side of the fire. ‘I thought I’d get us some breakfast. Porridge?’
Giles rolled out of his blankets and stood, running his fingers through his black, grey-shot hair. ‘Bedamned,’ he said. ‘How did you get out of those ropes? I tie a fair knot, and those have held stronger ones than you.’
Petia smiled wickedly, teeth showing. ‘It’s a little trick of mine.’ She walked over to Keja’s sleeping figure and kicked him none too gently. ‘Up, you lazy lout. The day’s half gone.’
Keja groaned and blinked. He closed his eyes again and muttered. ‘I was dreaming that the serving wench had got free.’
‘Listen to him.’ Petia returned to the fire and ladled porridge into bowls, handing one to Giles. ‘I’m Petia Darya. And you?’
Giles admired her straightforwardness. ‘Giles Grimsmate,’ he replied. ‘My pleasure. What were you looking for last night?’
‘His key, of course,’ she said. ‘I’ve completely lost my touch, I think. That’s the second time I’ve failed.’
Giles nodded. ‘You just tackled a pair of men whose senses are extra sharp, honed by years of suspicion. Twenty years of the War did that to me. I don’t know about Keja. Maybe thievery does that to you.’
‘It does. But I’m obviously out of practice.’
Keja muttered and groaned for half an hour, prowling around the campsite, bowl and spoon in hand. Finally, Giles tired of inaction and said, ‘Let’s try the keys again.’
‘More than one?’ Petia asked, her sharp eyes darting from one man to the other. Giles felt undercurrents of greed rising in her. If one key was valuable enough to chase after, two made the hunt twice as rewarding.
‘We each have one.’ Giles warily studied the Trans.
‘Maybe I should have tried to steal yours instead.’ She caught Giles’ dark look. ‘And maybe it’s just as well I didn’t.’
Giles headed toward the Gate, holding the glittering gold key between thumb and forefinger.
‘How do you know where the Gate is?’ Petia asked.
‘You can’t see it?’ Giles held out his hand. ‘Try the key.’
Petia daintily touched her finger to the key. The Gate suddenly shimmered below at the edge of the plain.
Keja came stumbling down the path behind them. ‘Is it still there? It didn’t go away, did it? I find it so tiring to deal with magicks of this order.’
Giles looked up to the heavens. ‘Open your eyes, man. No it didn’t go away.’ He walked to the Gate and inserted his key into the lowest lock. Trying each in turn, he found that his key once again opened only the third lock. ‘Might require opening in a particular sequence,’ he muttered.
Petia stood back to watch the seeming charade of Giles trying a different order in what she saw only as empty air. She became bored and wandered off. Keja sat on the ground, his head in his hand, still trying to wake up.
‘Did you see that, Giles?’ he yelled. ‘She walked through that stone column.
Giles looked up from his work. He saw Petia on the other side of the Gate. ‘What’s over there?’ he yelled to her.
‘You don’t have to shout. I can hear you perfectly well, extraordinarily well, in fact. Nothing’s over here, except the plain.’ She turned and gestured behind her across the barren land.
‘Come back here for a minute.’
Petia strolled back, walking ‘through’ the metal bars of the Gate, and stood at Giles’ side.
‘Great Ephrem! They’re illusory,’ Giles cried.
‘What?’
‘The gate, the columns, the entire Gate of Paradise. You walked away from me and through the stone columns. You’ve returned by walking through the bars.’ A slow smile crossed Giles’ face. ‘We’re home free.’
Giles briskly strode forward and smashed hard into the Gate. He reeled back and fell, while Petia walked forward and through the Gate, unimpeded.
Giles stared up, a foolish expression on his face. He looked from Petia to the key in his hand to the Gate.
‘Mind explaining this?’ asked Petia. ‘Why did you fall?’
‘I thought to simply walk through the Gate, as you just did. But while I hold the key, the Gate is solid, Impassable.’
Petia rejoined him, sticking out her hand. ‘Let me hold it.’
Reluctantly, Giles passed over the key. He rose; the Gate had vanished totally. When he walked forward, he felt only hot wind against his flesh. Giles looked back and saw Petia’s expression – to her, as long as she held the key, he passed through the solid Gate.
‘I thought it would work,’ he said sadly. ‘I thought I could enter, but when I hold the key, the Gate is impenetrable.’
‘And,’ cut in Keja, ‘when you no longer hold the key, you can’t see the Gate at all, so you can go through with no resistance.’
Giles took the key back from Petia, who surrendered it to him with obvious regret. He saw the light in her eyes die as the Gate vanished for her and reappeared to him. Giles went to the Gate, closed his eyes and stepped forward. He smashed into solid metal.
‘You’ve already tried that,’ pointed out Petia. ‘Why did you do it again?’
‘Something Keja said. I thought if I didn’t see the Gate, but still held the key…’ Giles’ voice trailed off. It sounded lame, silly. Like so much else in his life, it hadn’t worked out the way he’d intended.
‘I’m going to make one more attempt to pick those locks,’ Keja said. ‘I’ve come too far and endured great hardship, to give up easily now. Besides, the challenge excites me.’
‘A knothole excites you,’ muttered Petia. Keja gave her a superior look, then set to work picking the locks.
Finally Keja gave up. ‘I don’t understand it at all. There’s supposed to be immense wealth behind the Gate of Paradise. You don’t suppose it’s a false gate, do you?’
‘No,’ Giles said. ‘The story of the Gate mentions only the one.’
Keja’s head drooped. ‘My bad luck with the lock is exceeded only by the dismal luck I’ve had recently with women and retaining my belongings.’
‘The picks did nothing?’ Giles eyed the Gate. No amount of explosive would budge it either, he guessed. Physical against magical proved an unequal match; the magicks usually triumphed.
‘Not even a scratch,’ Keja said. ‘And it isn’t my lack of ability. Those locks were not meant to be picked. Not even by the masters.’
‘It’s obvious then how to open the Gate.’ Petia smiled sweetly at the two men staring at her.
As much as her superior nature in this irritated him, Giles liked the imp lurking in those eyes. ‘All right, brilliant one. I knew you turned up for a purpose. Reveal all to your humble audience.’
‘It’s as plain as a hump on a lirjan. There are five locks and you’ve opened two of them with two keys. Somewhere there are three more keys.’
Giles said nothing, digesting Petia’s words. He had felt alive in this quest. The tiredness descended upon him once more, making him into a man years older than his age.
‘That ends it,’ he said. ‘We’ve only got two keys, and Keja hasn’t been successful in picking the other locks, so we’re out of luck.’ He stared at the Gate of Paradise. ‘It would have been the adventure of a lifetime,’ he said softly.
‘You don’t suppose we could find the other three keys, do you?’ Petia looked from Giles to Keja and back. ‘You give up too easily.’
The men stared at her.
‘Well, is it such a crazy idea? Find three keys and the fortune is ours.’
Giles gazed off toward the Gate. ‘The idea is sound, but I have no hint where to go a’hunting for the other keys.’
‘What do we have to lose?’ the Trans insisted.
Keja looked up and scowled. ‘You mean form a team to go searching for them? Why should I become partners with a Trans who tried to steal my key from me, not once, but twice?’
‘What bothers you most, Keja? The fact that I’m a Trans, or a female, or a cleverer thief than you?’ Petia threw a clump of dirt at Keja. ‘Back in Klepht it didn’t matter that I was Trans.’
‘No, it didn’t,’ Keja said, a slow smile crossing his lips. ‘Still doesn’t. But you are hardly the cleverer thief. Let me tell you of…’
Giles broke in. ‘It hardly matters. None of us knows where to find – or steal – the other three keys. Even if we did, I can’t say I trust either of you. In the army we executed thieves, and I did my share of that chore with a certain willingness.’ Giles heaved a gusty sigh. ‘And you two obviously don’t trust each other. We wouldn’t make a very successful team, it appears to me.’
‘We might, once we got to know each other.’ Petia’s eyes glinted. ‘You both smell nice. And I don’t have anything better to do. There’s a troop of guards after me claiming I killed a couple of men outside Klepht. It was self defence, I swear it was.’ Neither Giles nor Keja much cared about this. They had experienced similar problems of their own. ‘There’s worse,’ Petia went on. ‘A despicable insect named Segrinn also follows me. I was indentured to his father, Lord Ambrose. I ran away to escape Segrinn’s bed.’
‘You do that a lot, don’t you?’ Keja asked.
‘Never mind,’ cut in Giles, irritated at all that had happened that day. ‘What’s the point to this, Petia?’
‘I’ll be frank. I wouldn’t mind the protection you two could give me.’
She curled up, catlike, and watched their responses. Petia continued, ‘Keja has guards after him, too. His key is stolen, if what I heard in Klepht was right.’
Giles nodded. ‘They came into the Laughing Cod the night after I won the key. City guard and guards of someone named l’Karm.’
‘They almost caught me in Neelarna,’ Keja said morosely. ‘I’m sure they’re still after me. Sooner or later they’ll pick up the trail.’
‘And you, Giles?’ Petia smiled sweetly. ‘Who is after you?’
Giles picked up a stick and drew squares and circles in the dirt at his feet. ‘Demons,’ he answered. Demons left over from a futile war, from killing too many men like himself, men foolishly loyal to self-serving commanders, from losing wife and son, from knife-edged memories chasing him across the barren lands locked within his head.
Giles said, ‘You know, I spend an afternoon in a temple in Glanport reading from a holy book.’
‘Religion? You don’t look the type.’ Keja glared at him, as if expecting better.
‘Listen.’ The crack of Giles’ command silenced the wiry thief. ‘I sought clues to this gate. The Temple of Welcome is an old religion, dying. I skimmed their scriptures.
‘At the beginning was a passage that mentioned keys. It wasn’t what I sought so I skimmed on. Something about five tribes closely connected at the beginning of time. The five tribal leaders said the keys were given to them by the gods. Probably had the keys made and concocted the story. But it welded the tribes together into a true nation.’
‘Politics and religion, always the perfect combination for keeping people in line,’ grumbled Keja. Giles ignored him and went on with his tale.
‘Their world grew cold and they had to move.’
‘So Petia may well be right. Five keys. But we don’t know where the other three are.’
Petia spoke so quietly that Giles almost missed her words.
‘I think I know where another of the keys is.’
Giles motioned for her to continue.
‘I come from Trois Havres, across the Everston Sea, on the continent of Milbante. Trois Havres has three rich coastal cities. Living somewhere inland is a sorceress – the Flame Sorceress. There are many stories about her, but one I remember from my childhood involves a golden key.’
Petia stopped.
Keja broke the silence. ‘You’re suggesting that we all go looking for the third key? Not this lad. Keja Tchurak is a loner. I work best alone – or perhaps with a willing woman beside me. In bed.’ He glared at Giles and Petia, daring them to dispute his claims.
‘For my part,’ said Giles, ‘I’m wandering nowhere in particular, but I don’t need the sort of adventure you’re suggesting.’
Petia shrugged. ‘It was just a thought. A bit selfish on my part. I’d like to see my home again.
‘It would be a fantastic adventure, though, wouldn’t it?’ Keja mused. ‘Just think – gather the five keys, open the Gate, rake in the immense wealth. What a great story to tell my grandchildren, of whom there will be legions.’ He pursed his lips and lost himself in consideration of this wild scheme.
‘Two thieves and an old warrior,’ Giles said, ‘off to seek their fortunes. It sounds like a tale told by a drunken sailor. Let me be honest with you. How could we ever trust each other?’
‘Are you so pure, Giles?’ asked Keja. ‘Have you never stolen? Even a crumb or two when you were hungry?’
‘That was different,’ Giles said, on the defensive. ‘My men starved and…’
‘Aha, you admit it then. Theft is theft, my friend.’ Keja smirked. ‘Me. I’m for trying. Come with us, Giles. We need your experience – and you might make upright citizens of Petia and me. You’ve got nothing else to do, you admit that.’
Giles looked at the two. For all his jesting tone, Keja’s eyes were sincere. Petia nodded solemnly.
‘I will regret this. I know it.’ He rose. ‘Let’s take one more look at the Gate.’ He examined the archway once more.
‘The Gate of Paradise,’ in large runic letters blazed out at Giles. Then he worked to decipher the smaller, less distinct runes. They read: ‘Only One May Enter.’
Short and direct, Giles thought, but cryptic. Did it mean that only one may enter at a time or that only one may ever enter? Giles decided to keep this small secret to himself.
‘The journey might be worth it,’ Giles said aloud. Petia and Keja came over.
‘So we go to Trois Havres to find this Flame Sorceress?’ asked Keja. ‘Petia tells me she is reputed to be gorgeous, just the sort of woman who is irresistibly attracted to me.’ Before Petia could say a word, Keja clamped one hand over his heart and cried, ‘But I will forsake this sorceress if only you, my darling, will…’
‘Enough of this,’ cut in Giles. ‘I have misgivings enough about my decision to join in this mad search for what might not exist.’ He thought of the dead priest. The Pater had said the Temple of Welcome taught that the seeking was more important than the finding. Giles began to think such a teaching carried with it a kernel of truth. Again, with just the promise of a goal, no matter how tenuous, Giles felt himself coming alive and wanting to travel, to experience, to see again what the world had to offer.
Keys or not, entry through the Gate or not, he would seek. The finding might be nothing or it might represent more. Only the attempt would tell the truth.
Petia’s head came up. ‘Shh,’ she said, putting her fingers to her lips. She listened intently.
‘What is it?’ asked Keja. ‘Do you listen for the rapturous beating of my heart? With you so near, I can do nothing else but feel the heat, the excitement, the…’
‘Keja!’ Giles silenced the thief. ‘Still your tongue and use your ears. Listen, man!’
‘There it is again,’ said Petia, her face set into a mask of fear. ‘Segrinn’s back on my trail.’
‘What is it? What do you hear?’ Giles asked.
‘You don’t hear it yet? No, you wouldn’t . My hearing is superior because of my cat nature. Segrinn’s lurchers bay, hot on my spoor. They’re still distant. We’d better leave. Soon.’
