Road's End (The Narrow Gate Book 4) Read online

  Road’s End

  The Narrow Gate 5

  By Janean Nusz

  Road’s End is a work of fiction. Characters, names, incidents, and places are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally, with much creative license. Any resemblance to actual locations, places, events or persons, either still living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 2016 by Janean Worth

  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.

  Cover design by Janean Worth, graphics from Adobe Stock

  Scripture quotes/verses from the Bible, King James Version

  Proofreading by Jennifer Harshman

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter One

  The happy sound of a girl’s laughter echoed amid the thick growth of lush foliage as Kara sat on the stone bench tucked away in the corner of the conservatory. Bright shafts of sunlight streamed in from the glass ceiling high above, gilding Jax’s silky fur, deepening the red tints in his coat as he leapt and played with a small Stray near a group of apple trees.

  Kara smiled as she watched them, thinking how bittersweet the sight was. Since they’d arrived back in the city at Otto’s sanctuary, as Kara had begun to think of it, this girl had never laughed, nor shown any other signs of mirth or pleasure, but now, playing with the fox, her joy seemed real.

  Kara felt a now‑familiar stab of guilt run through her, piercing her heart with an unsettling ache. As she watched Maude’s daughter in this rare moment of unguarded happiness, she knew that she herself was ultimately responsible for the child’s usual lack of joy. If she had not fled GateWide when Maude had come to her with her warning, if she had instead stayed and endured becoming one of the Sovereign’s Strays, then Maude would most probably still be alive and the girl would never have become a Stray herself. The girl would never have lost her brothers and sisters to the Sovereign’s cruelty and she would never have learned the brutalities inflicted upon the Strays who served in the House. If not for Kara, the girl would still be a child, with her happiness and joy intact. Instead, she was a wary creature made mature and bitter before her time.

  Kara had hoped that since they had been at the sanctuary, and under Otto’s care and protection for several weeks now, the girl would have at least started to come out of her shell and begin to act like a child again. But it seemed that the opposite was true. The girl spent much of her time alone, away from the other Strays and, it seemed lately, in avoidance of Kara herself. The girl often paced from room to room in the enormous sanctuary, frequently hiding in the shadows or going deep into the dense and sheltering foliage of the conservatory to sit for hours in solitude. Only rarely did Kara see her keeping company with anyone, and if she did happen to spend time with someone, it was always with the boy, Jack.

  In those first few days at the sanctuary, when Kara had done her best to make the Strays feel comfortable and welcome, she had learned that the girl’s name was Merrilee, which Kara thought was a bitter irony in and of itself. Though Merrilee had proven herself to be brave, stoic, and steadfast through adversity while they were escaping GateWide, the girl was anything but merry.

  Mathew approached her side but Kara did not look away from the fox and the girl playing in the shafts of sunlight as he came up to lean against the stone wall next to the bench. Kara was not looking forward to another argument with him, so she kept her eyes focused on the happy scene in front of her, paying no heed to his presence.

  Mathew allowed her to ignore him for several more moments, saying nothing, before he thrust an apple in front of her nose, blocking her vision.

  “You’ll need to eat something before we go out again,” he said.

  Kara felt the tension between them rise, a feeling that, sadly, was becoming as familiar as the guilt that she now carried with her everywhere.

  She sighed and reached up to take the apple from him.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. I’ve packed some smoked, dried fish in the saddlebags, if you need more than the apple while we’re out,” he patted the bags that he’d slung over one shoulder. “Are you ready?”

  Kara held back another sigh and stood, reluctant to leave the conservatory and the rare moment of peace that she’d found there. In the previous few weeks, it seemed that she’d spent all of her waking moments either helping to rehabilitate the Strays, preparing food for them, foraging, or out on patrol; and all the while, her guilt ate at her, spurring her on to do more and more for them. Although, logically, she knew that she could not make up for the lives that had been lost because of her actions, emotionally she couldn’t accept that there was nothing that she could do to make it better, and so she continued to try.

  She left the shady, peaceful spot and crossed the sunlit entry, her feet treading softly against the mossy stones that lined the perimeter of the conservatory’s plantings. Her movements caught Merrilee’s attention and the girl stopped cavorting with the fox and stilled, looking up at them as they passed, a glimmer of something in her eyes.

  Kara said nothing as they passed, for she’d come to suspect that Merrilee liked it better that way. She had noticed that glimmer of emotion in the girl’s eyes more often over the past few days, and she couldn’t quite decide what it was. Was it bitterness because of what Kara’s long‑ago decision to flee had cost Merrilee? Was it anger because of what the Sovereign had done to her and the other Strays? Or was it something else?

  Kara’s heart twisted with guilt again, the pain of the emotion going deep. She had so wanted to befriend the girl, to try to atone for what had been done by the Sovereign, but Merrilee remained stoic, showing no sign of emotion toward her except that occasional spark of something in her eyes, and even that appeared infrequently.

  Kara sighed sadly as they left the conservatory in silence, leaving Merrilee and Jax to resume their play, though Kara heard no signs of it as she exited the room and walked across the immense entryway in the huge building that now housed them all. She told herself that the sound of her heels clacking against the highly polished marble may have drowned out any noise that the two made as they resumed their play, but she wasn’t sure that this was the case and felt another moment of remorse for interrupting what had been a rare moment of happiness.

  Beside her, Mathew remained silent, t
reading along at her side like a shadow following the slant of the setting sun.

  It took only minutes for them both to cross the entryway, traverse a long hallway, and exit through a door that Otto had shown them at the far end of the building. The door led to another attached building, which had not been in the best of repair when they’d arrived with their rescued band of people and animals after their escape from GateWide. But, because of his seemingly limitless strength and endurance, Otto had needed only two days to repair it enough to use as a makeshift stable to house the horses.

  The makeshift brick‑and‑stone stable was dim when they entered, with only two yellow‑tinged Old Tech globes glowing inside to provide light. The windows had been closed over by Otto, preventing any unwanted access, allowing no natural light to sneak inside. Otto had removed the first floor ceiling as well and now the airy space stretched up two stories above their heads.

  Kara inhaled the peaceful scents of horses, dried grasses, and leather that mingled in the still air as they neared the improvised stalls. Otto had fashioned the stalls out of precisely stacked equally sized chunks of rubble, forming neat, vertical shoulder‑height walls that took up nearly the entire floor space in the building.

  Gallant waited patiently in the nearest stall of this improvised stable, munching contentedly on a large bundle of grass that had been brought in from the latest foraging endeavor of the three oldest and healthiest Strays. The filly that Kara favored was in the stall next to Gallant, enjoying her own ration of dried wild grass.

  She and Mathew saddled the horses, keeping their silence, but as he removed the saddlebags from his own shoulders and slung them across the back of Gallant’s saddle, Mathew sighed loudly.

  “You know, you’d think that after all of those years of being alone and having no one to talk to, you wouldn’t be the one to favor the silent treatment,” he said.

  She tossed him a glare over the back of her horse as she gave the cinch strap a final tug.

  “I am not giving anyone the silent treatment. I just don’t care to argue with you anymore. And, I don’t think that you should refer to my time alone in the wilderness in jest. It was anything but funny to me,” she replied.

  “That wasn’t what I was doing,” Mathew said as he swung himself up onto Gallant’s back, the motion effortless and nimble.

  Not for the first time, she noticed how much healthier Mathew seemed and how he’d filled out over the preceding few weeks. The plentiful, healthful food, constant work, and frequent riding had been good for him, and he’d gained both height and muscle in the short time that they’d been at the sanctuary.

  She swung herself into her saddle, realizing that the same was true of her own body. The nutritious and abundant food, combined with the constant work needed to take care of the Strays, and the exercise gained while out on patrol in the city or on a foraging trip in the vast meadow that they’d discovered to the west had been good for her as well. She’d gained strength, endurance, and some muscle, too, and her hip no longer pained her.

  She had no reply for Mathew, so she simply wheeled her horse around and headed for the exit to the building, which had been left open to provide a little bit of ventilation.

  Jack was mucking out a stall near the exit, and he waved to them as they passed, his face covered in stable dirt and a smile. Kara smiled back, glad to see how well he was adjusting to his new life. He hardly seemed like the timid Stray that they’d rescued from GateWide just weeks before. Jack loved the sanctuary, and he loved working with the horses. He’d quickly taken over the chores in the stable as his own, and he seemed to enjoy every moment of his newfound freedom.

  The sunlight outside was dazzling after the dim interior of the stable, and Kara blinked as they rode out of the open double doors and entered the maze of carefully placed debris that littered the exit route. The maze had been another project of Otto’s and the metal giant had achieved a truly amazing effect in a relatively short amount of time. Enormous chunks of concrete rubble had been stacked and piled very high, leaving only a slim path between the towering walls, just wide enough for a single horse to pass through. The debris had been arranged flawlessly, and looked just as much a part of the impassable crumbling rubble here as it did in other ruined areas that littered the city. Otto had truly outdone himself, because the maze stretched out for miles. Even the enormous entrance doors at the front of the sanctuary had been hidden behind layers and layers of stacked rubble, with only a thin access path leading to them.

  The buildings that housed the conservatory and stable were only accessible through the series of slim paths that Otto had formed inside the maze, and the outer exits to the maze were well hidden. So far, not a single Enforcer or Fidget had been able to find a way inside the maze of pathways the metal giant had built.

  Kara took the lead, gently guiding the filly onto the single‑file path, and Mathew followed close behind. The hushed quiet of the decimated city closed in on them as they rode deep into the maze and today the silence seemed oppressive and ominous. Kara rationalized that it was only the stress of her constant arguing with Mathew and the stress of the struggle to nurse the remaining Strays back to health quickly that caused her to feel so anxious. And though there seemed to be no outward cause for her to feel this way, by the time they cautiously exited the maze, her nerves were a bit frayed from the heavy, portentous quiet.

  The path they’d taken inside the maze exited not far from the south edge of the city, and it was only a few minutes’ ride to the original road that had first led them to Otto. It was toward that road that Kara guided the filly.

  Mathew drew abreast of her on Gallant as soon as they cleared the engineered rubble.

  “Are we still going to place a false trail through the Old Forest today?” he asked, his voice pitched just loud enough to be heard over the sound of their horses’ hooves.

  They’d spent much time in the Old Forest in the preceding few weeks. Enough that they’d found the easiest path through it and back to GateWide. This new familiarity with the vast forest allowed them to place spurious trails, leading nowhere, just where the Enforcers would find them.

  She nodded, “I think that’s best, don’t you? That’s where most of the Enforcer activity has been lately.”

  “I wish that the Sovereign would stop sending them after us. It’s been weeks. You’d think that he would give up and admit defeat. Why can’t he just leave us in peace?”

  Kara glanced sideways at him. “He wants your father’s Old Tech device. He’s not going to give up until he has it.”

  Mathew snorted. “Too bad I can’t get a message to him to let him know that it no longer works.”

  “Still? Have you tried it today? Have you given it enough time in the sun?”

  “I have tried it today, and it has been in the sun every day, all day, since our return here. It still doesn’t work to communicate with my father. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”

  Kara sighed, knowing what he’d say next. True to form, he launched into the same argument that they’d been having for the previous two weeks.

  “You know that we need to go, Kara. We need to find the Narrow Gate. We can leave the Strays with Otto and come back for them when they’re healthy enough to travel.”

  “And you know that the Strays still need our care and direction. I want to find the Narrow Gate and our fathers every bit as much as you do, but is it the right thing to do, leaving the Strays? You know how I feel about this, Mathew; we’ve been over this at least a dozen times!”

  “Of course it is the right thing to do! Finding the way for them has to be the right thing. And Otto will be here with them. He will care for and protect them. Just the same as he’s been doing since we returned. Just like what he did for us when we found him.”

  “I know Otto will look after them, but I don’t agree, Mathew. I cannot agree. It seems like a selfish indulgence to just leave them here because we want to find the Narrow Gate.”

  Mathew’s voi
ce rose with his frustration, “It isn’t selfish, Kara, it is the right thing to do!”

  “I don’t think so. But, you know that if that’s how you feel, you are welcome to follow your own direction. I am not forcing my decision upon you.”

  “I am not leaving here without you. You know that. We started the journey together, and we should finish it together. But it needs to be soon, Kara. We need to leave. You said yourself that you don’t think that the Sovereign will stop sending his Enforcers. And I don’t think the Fidgets are going to stop hunting us, either. We are just putting the others in danger if we stay longer.”

  Kara scoffed. “If we leave in order to protect the Strays, how would the Enforcers even know that we had left the city?”

  Mathew gave her a long look. “Because we’d make sure they knew. We’d leave a trail. Or a message. We could draw them away from the others.”

  Kara opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say anything, the horse shied violently beneath her. She was just barely able to keep her seat as the filly bleated in terror and crow‑hopped sideways, violently knocking into Gallant in her fright.

  Five short shapes were darting toward them, peeling away from the shadowed rubble at the sides of the road, and the horse nearly unseated her again in an attempt to avoid them. Kara had only a moment to realize that the shapes were Fidgets. Fidgets! The creatures that never ventured out in daytime, the creatures that could not tolerate sunlight, were now attacking them in broad daylight.

  She gave the filly her head, and the horse leapt forward, away from a wickedly sharp claw that was thrust in their direction from under one of the Fidget’s odd coverings. Coverings that shielded every inch of skin and shaded their sensitive eyes from the brightness of the sun beneath large, drooping hoods.

  Chapter Two

  Hooves thundered upon broken and cracked asphalt as they raced away. The Fidgets squealed in anger as they were easily left behind. Mathew’s heart pounded inside his ribcage, almost matching the staccato beat of Gallant’s long stride. The Fidgets had nearly had them!