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  AFTER THE FALL

  THE NARROW GATE PREQUEL

  By Janean Worth

 

  AFTER THE FALL (prequel in THE NARROW GATE SERIES)

  Copyright 2015 by Janean Worth and Author’s Art books

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, recording, xerography or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author, Janean Worth and the publisher, Author’s Art, www.authorsart.com

  For my own mother, who is simply the best. Thank you for being the wonderful person that you are.

  Chapter One

  The door to the cottage bucked wildly against the leather hinges, banging against the wooden frame and showering Kara with dust from the daub and wattle ceiling as she rushed to answer the summons.

  Already filthy from her day of cleaning for Mrs. Malmont, the dust falling into her hair from the shabby ceiling didn’t bother her as much as the racket caused by the pounding. After a day of putting up with squalling toddlers and Mrs. Malmont’s constant nagging and screeching, Kara just wanted a few moments of silence and a little something to eat to ease the gnawing hunger in her belly.

  Who could be coming to visit at this time of day, anyway? And for what purpose? No one ever came to the tiny tumbledown cottage that she shared with her mother. Kara grumbled her irritation as she removed the sturdy wooden bar that held the door closed, then jerked open the heavy leather-bound door.

  Maude, her mother’s good friend, who was forced to work at the Sovereign’s House alongside Kara’s mother, stood on the threshold. From the expression of fear and anguish upon Maude’s face, Kara knew immediately that something terrible must have happened at the House.

  “What is it, Maude?” Kara tried to control the tremor in her voice, her petty irritation at the interruption to her afternoon solitude now gone, replaced by an anxious fear that clawed up the inside of her throat and threatened to choke her with its intensity. “Where is my mother?”

  Maude’s face twisted with emotion at the question, her red-rimmed eyes filled with tears and her mouth flapped opened and closed several times as if she were trying to speak. The elderly lady knotted her chapped hands into the stained apron that she wore over her threadbare dress, as if the action could wring her own words from her mouth.

  Kara’s anxiety turned to terror as she watched Maude trying to form words. Seeing the state that Maude was in, she almost didn’t want the woman to find her voice and blurt out the words that Kara was sure were coming. In that second, Kara wanted desperately not to know what Maude was there to tell her.

  After scrubbing her eyes with the back of one work-worn hand, Maude swallowed hard and found her voice.

  “I’m sorry, child, but your mother is dead.”

  A grief-stricken scream welled up within Kara, but she would not let it pass her lips. Anguish filled her chest until she though that her heart might explode from the pain of it, but she stood silently before Maude and waited for the rest. Somehow, she knew there was more bad news coming.

  “She was,” Maude’s voice quivered and she gulped again, as if holding back sickness. “She was mauled and killed by a rampaging Tracken at the House.”

  A Tracken! Kara had never seen one of the beasts, but the creatures that the Sovereign forcibly kept as pets and companions to the Enforcer patrols were supposed to be fearsome beasts. The animals were known for their savagery and for their skill at tracking prey.

  Kara swallowed hard, trying to keep another cry behind her teeth. The thought of her beautiful, gentle mother being ripped apart by such a monster and killed in that manner was too much to bear. She forced the imagery from her mind, fearing that she would loose all self-control and dissolve into a wailing mess in front of her mother’s friend.

  Maude glanced over her shoulder at the narrow empty street that ran in front of the run down cottage, looking left and right as if searching for someone. Fear sharpened the older woman’s features then, and she leaned closer, whispering now, though there was no one around to hear.

  “Your mother was a friend, Kara, you know that. That’s why I snuck out of the House to warn you before the Enforcers get here. They be coming to get you now that you’re a Stray, Kara,” the woman’s voice was sharp with fear. “They be coming, and I came to warn you first. You need to run, child.”

  Kara shook her head mutely, her mind unwilling to take in this extra burden on top of the knowledge that her mother was now dead. She couldn’t fathom being a Stray, even though her newly orphaned status made her one. She couldn’t run, even though she knew that Maude would not lie about something so serious. It was all too much to take in. Her mind seemed to be frozen, caught in a strange combination of inertia and lethargy. Maude stepped closer and grabbed Kara’s shoulders in a harsh grip, her bony fingers, strengthened by the hard labor she was forced to do in the House, dug into the Kara’s soft flesh as Maude gave her a good shake.

  “Are you hearing me, girl? Best you be leaving, now, Kara. You need to take what you can carry and run. Without your mother, you’ll be a Stray, and it will be life in the House for you too. I risked my own life, and that of my own children, to come warn you because your mother was a friend. A good friend. And I’d have wanted her to do the same for my own children as I’m doing for you now.”

  The pain in Kara’s shoulders focused her somewhat, snapping her back to the moment.

  “But, Maude, where can I run to? There’s nowhere in GateWide that the Enforcers won’t find me. Nowhere.”

  Maude’s features firmed with determination, her red-rimmed eyes going steely with determination. “That’s why you have to leave GateWide.”

  The horror of that statement shocked Kara so much that she stepped back from the woman, wrenching her shoulders from the tight grasp. Maude had gone mad!

  “I can’t leave GateWide. It offers the only safety from the wilderness and the beasts. You know that!” Kara couldn’t believe that Maude had even suggested it. Everyone knew that only danger and death lurked outside the gate.

  Maude threw another worried look over her shoulder, checking the street again, and then she straightened and backed away from Kara. “I cannot force you to flee, Kara, and yes it sounds like madness, but, believe me, it is your only hope. If you won’t believe me, then believe your mother. I know she told you more than she should have about the House, so you know how it is for Strays there.”

  Her mother had warned her. And it was those remembered warnings that convinced Kara and coaxed her into action.

  “I can’t stay no longer. The Enforcers will be here soon,” Maude said as she backed the rest of the way out of the doorway. Throwing one last, concerned look Kara’s way, she turned to go.

  “God be with you, Kara,” she whispered as she fled down the road.

  Kara’s heart clenched painfully in her chest again as soon as Maude was gone. She was alone, truly alone, for the first time in her young life. After her father’s death, she’d at least had her mother. And now she realized that there was no one else who loved her. No one who could protect her. No one who cared if she lived or died. She was a Stray now, in every way.

  Kara quickly gathered her ratty rucksack, the one she used to use to carry her books to the tutor’s house when times had been better. Then, the sack had been new and fine, but now it was worn and ugly, showing wear along the leather seams. Still, she was grateful for its comforting bulk as she began to fill it with what few possessions she had.